Depression is an emotional state characterized by sadness, less activity and the inability to enjoy life. It is one of the most common psychological problems. The presented study presents typical symptoms of depression as well as its various variants. In the following chapters, we also describe how to deal with this disease and how to deal with a person suffering from depression.
A. Depression in children
Depression in children is uncommon. They constitute (up to the period before puberty) about 3% of all diagnosed depression. However, this is a serious therapeutic issue and therefore children should be treated in specialized centers, by doctors and therapists who have extensive experience in this field. Among children, boys suffer from depression more often. Just before and after puberty, however, there are approximately twice as many girls, which is similar to the incidence in the adult population.
There is a serious risk of suicide with child depression. Therefore, the treatment should be undertaken as quickly and comprehensively as possible. This means that the therapeutic team should be involved, and the treatment should often also include family therapy.
The problem of recurrent disease
Child depression creates a serious probability of disease in adulthood, which is related to biological determinants of endogenous depression.
Undeveloped procedures for treating children
A major difficulty in treating children is the lack of standards for the use of many antimicrobial drugs in this age group. Relatively well recognized is the use of tricyclic antidepressants.B.
Depression in the elderly
In this way, the sixteenth-century French poet Ronsard (Oda XIII, translated by L. E. Stefański) wrote about his sorrows and difficulties related to advanced age:
My sweet youth left me, My first strength broken, My tooth is black, my head is white Weak arms, and the veins of the Blood Cities have filled with water Ore, which does not heat the body. The head crushes me to the ground, Because the years of suffering were on it And the wickedness sat down wicked So so urgently at all times I'm constantly looking ahead to see, that is, Death arrives.
How often do elderly people get sick?
It is believed that about 15% of older people, over 65 years of age, suffer from a variety of depression. It seems to be mainly related to the aging process. Other factors that influence the high prevalence of depression in old age are irrevocable life situations; death of friends or loved ones. In patients who have previously suffered from depression, it may convert more often, and the relapse time may be longer and the course may be more onerous.
We distinguish two forms of depression in the elderly.
· A character with agitation and delusions - it consists in arousal and anxiety with coexisting delusions concerning usually somatic diseases, changes in the body, guilt, punishment, sinfulness, robbing, impoverishment, impairedness and nothingness
· Apathetic form - we recognize when the loss of interest, the will to live prevails and the speed of thinking and physical activity are slowed down. These people are characterized by a sense of reduced physical and intellectual capacity. This condition can be so severe that it resembles dementia.
Inversive depression
Until recently, this diagnosis was treated as a separate psychiatric unit or depression occurring during the body's aging period, when irreversible hormonal changes occur. The diagnosis was made in women after menopause and men during andropause.Of course, this time in a person's life also involves an increased risk of various age-related somatic changes as well as specific psychological problems. Their accumulation may indeed result in a depression in which patients' complaints will have a similar character and the dilemmas will be similar. Nevertheless, this recognition is now treated as historical and sometimes only emphasizing the specificity of the time in which it was found. Note It should be strongly emphasized that depression in the elderly carries a high risk of suicide risk. That is why it should be treated as early as possible by a psychiatrist.
A message from the author for the reader
The characteristics of depression are enriched by authentic statements of patients, descriptions of their ailments and difficulties in overcoming the disease. The author has been conducting extensive private practice for years, in which depressive patients make up the majority of applicants.
Ph.D., MD Janusz Krzyżowski. Psychiatrist
