Causes and main symptoms of recurrent depressive disorder. Types of medication and advice for sick people. New methods of psychological assistance. Recurrent depressive disorder is a disorder characterized by repeated episodes of depressed mood, motor retardation, and anhedonia (inability to experience positive emotions) of moderate or severe severity, without signs of increased mood and activity. Basically, this condition lasts from twelve to six months and is accompanied by periods of remission of up to eight weeks. Pathology predominantly affects women of Balzac age. Seasonality of exacerbations and individual frequency during the course are also noted.
Reasons for the development of recurrent depressive disorder
Determination of a single etiological factor in this case, as a rule, is impossible. Most often, there are several reasons at once. Over a period of time, they have a negative impact on the human condition. After a period of time, the body's reserve forces cease to cope with them. Then the last provoking factor appears, as a result of which the first symptoms appear.
Among the main reasons for the development of recurrent depression are:
- Endogenous … This is mainly the presence of a hereditary predisposition. In most cases, when taking anamnesis, you can find out about a relative with a mental diagnosis. It can be either the same disease or other types of pathology. This group also includes genetic mutations that occur during fertilization. Then they talk about the innate tendency of a person. Often these are spontaneous rearrangements within chromosomes that can affect health in the future.
- Psychogenic … The presence of a calm character is noted by far from many people. Excessive emotionality in everyday life exposes a person to constant feelings of stress. Bad news, failures in personal life and at work, quarrels with loved ones and other factors also lead to this condition. If their influence becomes too frequent or a person is too sensitive to them, then it is often not possible to avoid the pathological reaction of the body in the form of depression.
- Somatic … Many diseases of internal organs can be reflected in the psychoemotional state of a person. Firstly, these are infectious lesions in which the structures of the brain are involved in the process. Secondly, it is injuries. The presence of a traumatic brain injury of any severity can lead to serious consequences. Very often, if such people do not have symptoms, they are not observed in medical institutions and are not warned of the existing risk. It is also worth mentioning the harmful effects of toxic and narcotic substances.
The onset of the first episodes of recurrent depression, as a rule, is associated with the influence of a psychogenic factor. But repeated attacks are realized due to the action of internal pathology.
Symptoms of recurrent depressive disorder in humans
There are few specific features for recurrent depressive disorder. These are mainly common symptoms that are found in many other mental illnesses. Differential diagnostics plays a huge role. By eliminating uncharacteristic signs, you can more accurately determine the pathology. There is a division of all symptoms of recurrent depressive disorder into two groups.
Major Symptoms of Recurrent Depressive Disorder
With this disease, it is very important to pay attention to the alarming signs of the body in time. In order not to accept a pathological condition as the norm, you need to know about several main signs of this disease.
The following symptoms are determined:
- Depression … Its presence in humans is the first and mandatory point in the diagnosis. It is characterized by depression of mood. The patient does not enjoy the things that previously brought her. Every day it becomes more difficult for him to smile and more and more worries about the inner feeling of dissatisfaction. Over time, problems begin at work and in society. Noisy companies will annoy and anger, but not induce any action.
- Decreased interest … A sign that manifests itself in all the strength of its action. A person's curiosity disappears. He absolutely does not want to know about what is happening around him. There is no motivation for action, even if it was his favorite pastime. Such people are reluctant to get together with friends, and going to work gives them great difficulties. Reading newspapers and magazines, watching TV programs cannot satisfy and interest, as before. In the end, the patient notes that no one thing can bring him joy.
- Fast fatiguability … This symptom requires especially close attention, because it can signal many anxiety states of the body, although it manifests itself in a fairly typical way. A person's morning begins with a difficult rise, even if the dream lasted a long time. Throughout the day, there is a lack of energy and lethargy, which are often perceived by others for laziness. By the evening, a person's energy resources are depleted even more, drowsiness and fatigue appear. Symptoms of joint and muscle pain may also join.
Additional symptoms of recurrent depressive disorder
Sometimes the main signs of the disease are not manifested enough to be sure of its presence. It also often happens that they are disguised as some kind of internal pathology. Sometimes they act as signs of bipolar disorder, but in this case they alternate with increased emotionality.
Therefore, there are several more criteria by the presence of which one can be sure of the correct diagnosis. Among them:
- Low self-esteem … In the presence of such a symptom, a person loses the ability to adequately criticize his own personality. Too preconceived opinions about their appearance appear. Women are characterized by inferiority complexes, shyness. They prefer to always remain in the shadows and not show their presence. Men, on the other hand, suffer more from insecurity. From this, problems appear at work, career growth becomes impossible, problems arise in the family.
- Heightened sense of guilt … Characterized by an excessive fear of offending someone. In this case, a person always follows the circumstances and never argues with someone else's opinion. If he still decides to do something, then then he suffers for a very long time because of worries about this. He constantly thinks that he did something wrong and offended another person by this. Such suggestion is accompanied by constant apologies to someone, even if they are inappropriate.
- Suicidal tendencies … Such thoughts do not come to a person immediately. This condition fuels the presence of other symptoms of the disease. The more pronounced they are, the faster the patient will begin to think about harming himself. Very rarely, these urges are spontaneous. More often than not, this is a well thought out and planned process. At the time of the suicide attempt, the patient is already completely confident in his helplessness and uselessness in this world. Even qualified people do not always manage to dissuade him from such actions.
- Decreased attention … People often refer to this manifestation. Especially if, until recently, they did not notice such violations. First, there are difficulties with professional skills and only then with the performance of the usual work. A person cannot concentrate on doing one thing. It takes a long time to collect all the thoughts into a single conclusion. This condition brings many difficulties and significantly worsens the patient's quality of life.
- Sleep problems … Violations of the regime of the day and night with recurrent depression occur almost always. Moreover, they become permanent, but with a change in the prevalence of sleep and wakefulness phases. In the initial stages, manifestations of insomnia are possible. Due to remorse and a large number of thoughts, a person simply cannot fall asleep, and if he succeeds, then the effectiveness of such sleep is very low. Subsequently, the reserve forces of the body are depleted, and constant drowsiness arises as a protective reaction.
- Loss of appetite … This pathology depends not only on this disease, but also on the individual characteristics of a person. In most cases, it is still malnutrition. Due to the lack of interest in the environment, the patient loses his habitual appetite. This can be both partial and complete refusal to eat. But in some cases, such depressive disorders are accompanied by binge eating. Trying to somehow compensate for moral exhaustion, patients can gain a fairly large amount of excess weight.
Classification of recurrent depression
Based on the variety of clinical manifestations, one can judge about the various types of this disease. This division was based on the presence of a certain number of main and additional diagnostic criteria. Also, at the same time, the influence of a depressive state on the internal organs and systems of a person is taken into account.
As a result, the following degrees of severity of the disease are distinguished:
- Easy … This stage is diagnosed when the patient has two main symptoms in combination with a couple of additional ones. In this case, it is also necessary to take into account the involvement of internal organs in the process. In this case, it is minimal or absent at all. The general condition of the person is satisfactory, the adaptability to everyday life is preserved.
- Moderate … A more severe lesion, which is characterized by the same indicators as the previous degree, but with the identification of four concomitant symptoms. Also, in this state, the presence of somatic pathology in its rather severe manifestations is mandatory.
- Heavy … This diagnosis is made if the patient has all of the listed symptoms. They are also accompanied by disturbances from various organs and systems, but already in life-threatening conditions. Most patients are subject to compulsory and immediate hospitalization and require qualified medical care.
Features of the treatment of recurrent depressive disorder
In the past few years, the problem of treating recurrent depressive disorder has become more researched and understood. According to generally accepted standards, first of all, a complete diagnostic examination of the patient is performed. After that, the presence of other mental disorders is excluded by the method of differential diagnosis. Only after confirming the expected diagnosis, you can start choosing a therapy method.
Patient advice
Modern society places high hopes on the development of self-help for the patient, because it is with her that the path to recovery begins. It is very important that each person has a self-preservation mechanism. Guided by it in the future, you can prevent the development of many diseases.
The first and most important advice to a patient with recurrent depression will be to ask a doctor. Among many people, there is a fear of visiting the hospital, and even more so of psychologists. Because of this thought, the stages at which help could be provided are skipped, moving to a more serious stage. And this only entails the complication of the situation.
The second tip is full revelation. Don't be afraid to share your thoughts and concerns. It is very difficult to identify the presence of a disease in a person who hides his true health behind an invented mask for society. Just the right conversation with a loved one can sometimes prevent the very development of the disease.
The next step in solving a problem is trust. To achieve positive results in therapy, it is necessary to acquire the support of the patient himself. Very often, patients react sharply to the prescription of psychotropic drugs, considering their use inappropriate in this situation. It should be noted that in most cases, treatment of recurrent depression is impossible without the use of drugs. Full consent to treatment will significantly speed up the process of identifying and eliminating the cause of depression.
Psychological help
Today in the world there are hundreds of different methods of psychotherapy, but they are all aimed at eliminating the same group of diseases. Some are based on individual lessons, others are based on group lessons. Many of them are considered obsolete and are not used by modern psychoanalysts.
I would like to dwell on the methods that are still used:
- Psychodynamic … The essence of this method is to conduct an individual session with the patient for an hour. During such a conversation, the doctor allows him to freely express the thoughts that come to mind. It is believed that due to this associative thinking, the existing problem will become a place of delay in the conversation. Subsequent sessions will help the person uncover the true causes of their depression.
- Analysis of dreams … This method has found its application in many treatment methods. The easiest way to penetrate into the unconscious part of thinking is through sleep. What happens in it is divided into explicit and hidden. A specially trained doctor is able to interpret what the patient sees while sleeping. Very often it is there that the reasons that bother the patient lie. And what he does not tell anyone about. With the help of the same technique, subsequent correction of the painful condition is possible.
- Behavior therapy … Covers ways that are aimed at eliminating already existing methods of adaptation in humans. After that, a new model of behavior in stressful situations is created. This happens during sessions, during which, through analysis, the doctor determines the mistakes in the patient's actions and corrects them together with him. The technique is justified and quite widespread in use.
- Correction of cognitive functions … A relatively new type of mental health care. Its essence is based on a person's perception of external circumstances. The doctor finds out the patient's judgments about what is happening in his life and tries to show him how wrong he is. Naturally, prompting phrases are used, the development of a stream of thoughts, and not direct dissuasion. Thus, the patient himself begins to think about the reliability of his understanding of reality. It is considered the best treatment for depression.
Drug therapy
The choice of medicines is one of the most difficult steps in the treatment of this disease. You can do without them only in some cases of recurrent depression of mild degree. In all its other manifestations, it makes no sense to pin hopes on other methods of therapy. This may not only not benefit the patient, but also worsen his overall health.
Modern pharmacology provides a fairly wide range of drugs that can help with this disease:
- Preparations with a tricyclic structure … Means that are aimed at suppressing the main symptoms of the disease. Among the most commonly used are imipramine. It has a fairly long therapeutic effect and is available in various forms. It also has no contraindications for people with cardiovascular disease. It is effective in the presence of suicidal thoughts and lethargy.
- Depressing serotonin reuptake … The most prominent representative is Fluoxetine. The substance has a selective effect on serotonin receptors. By increasing its concentration in the blood, it improves the patient's mood. This mechanism of action allows you not to affect other organ systems and have minimal side effects.
- MAO inhibitors … Monoamine oxidase is an enzyme that works to break down serotonin and norepinephrine. When its amount in the blood decreases, then the level of these substances begins to rise. Thus, the patient becomes more cheerful, shows interest in life and the environment. Among the commonly used are Moclobemide.
How to treat recurrent depressive disorder - watch the video:
Recurrent depressive disorder is a huge problem in the modern world, which keeps pace with its progressive development. Maintaining mental health is an important task for every person and requires careful monitoring of his condition. Developing resistance to stress can significantly reduce the risk of disease.
