health

Depression is a mood disorder that does not affect everyone in the same
way. There is some evidence, for example, that women and men experience
depression differently; women are more likely to feel sad, worthless,
or guilty, while men are more likely to feel tired, irritable, and uninterested
in activities that they used to enjoy. Men appear more likely than
women to get angry and act abusively toward others, or to drive recklessly.
Depression in the elderly may take the form of memory problems or
slowed-down movement rather than crying or feeling sad. Depression in
children may have such symptoms as refusing to go to school, getting in
trouble, or sulking and being generally moody and hard to get along with.
Depression also has different patterns of recurrence in different
people. Some persons have one episode of depression, recover, and are
never troubled by recurrences. Others have a series of episodes at irregular
intervals. And as the definition of dysthymia indicates, some people
have a low-grade depression that may persist for years without turning
into an episode of major depression.
Depression often coexists with other mental and physical disorders,
which often makes it difficult to diagnose. Depression can occur before the
person gets sick; can occur as a result of the sickness; or exist alongside
other illness. Mental disorders that often coexist with depression include
alcoholism and substance abuse disorders, eating disorders, anxiety disorders,
posttraumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Physical disorders that commonly affect depressed patients include heart
disease, stroke, cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and Parkinson disease. Depression
can make the symptoms of these diseases worse and harder to treat.