Depression
General characteristics of Depression include:
Depressed mood, sadness, tearful (in children and adolescence - an irritable mood), diminished interest or pleasure in most or all activities, significant weight loss or weight gain (decrease or increase in appetite), insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness, excessive or inappropriate guilt, diminished ability to think or concentrate, indecisiveness, recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideations (Kaplan & Sadock, 1996).
Additional age specific features include:
Children (prepubertal)- somatic complaints, agitation, single- voice auditory hallucinations, phobias, and anxiety disorders.
Adolescence- substance abuse, antisocial behavior, restlessness, promiscuity, poor hygiene, increased sensitivity to rejection, truancy, school difficulties.
Adult- substance abuse, antisocial behavior, restlessness, cognitive deficits (memory loss, confusion, disorientation).
Elderly- cognitive deficits, pseudodementia or dementia syndrome of depression, distractibility, apathy (Kaplan & Sadock, 1996).
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