Interpersonal Model of Depression
Posted By Kelly On Wednesday, May 25th 2011 under: Depression
The interpersonal approach to depression focus on interactional patterns as a primary source of the onset and maintenance of depression. The interpersonal approach to depression also serves as the theoretical foundation of an approach to the treatment of depression (see Interpersonal Psychotherapy in this site).
The interpersonal model stems from two historical foundations. As Gotlib and Schraedley (2000) have noted, the first can be found in the work of the Harry ... Read More
Internalizing Disorders
Posted By Kelly On Wednesday, May 25th 2011 under: Depression
Reynolds (1992) described internalizing disorders in children and adolescents as "a class of disorders that are considered to be inner-directed, in which core symptoms are associated with overcontrolled behaviors". The term internalizing, ironically, was not born out of a disorder-based classification scheme, but rather from an empirical approach to understanding the organization of children's emotional and behavioral symptoms. Over time, those disorders whose symptoms were related to these dimensions became ... Read More
Internal Working Models
Posted By Kelly On Wednesday, May 25th 2011 under: Depression
The idea of an internal working model was proposed by Bowlby (1980). Internal working models are seen as so-called cognitive-interpersonal blueprints that form the basis of how interpersonal interactions are to be processed and interpreted. These blueprints encompass implicit beliefs about the self and others, along with procedural rules and knowledge for processing information and determining behavioral, emotional, and verbal responses to interpersonal situations. This knowledge also includes internal representations ... Read More
Therapeutic Lifestyle Change
Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, May 24th 2011 under: Medical Practice
Therapeutic lifestyle change (TLC) is a 14-week behavioral intervention for depression based on a set of six principal lifestyle elements of established antidepressant efficacy: physical exercise, omega-3 fatty acid supplementation, bright light exposure, enhanced social connection, antiruminative activity, and adequate nightly sleep. Predicated on the assumption that the burgeoning depression epidemic in North America and Europe is attributable in part to the loss of key protective features that characterized life ... Read More
Expressed Emotion
Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, May 24th 2011 under: Depression
Expressed emotion (EE) is a relational construct that provides a measure of the family environment. Its origins come from schizophrenia research. However, expressed emotion is an important variable for those interested in depression. This is because high levels of expressed emotion reliably predict increased risk of relapse and recurrence of illness in depressed patients who have achieved clinical remission.
Measurement
EE is assessed during an interview with the patient's key relative. For ... Read More
Exercise and Depression
Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, May 24th 2011 under: Medical Practice
Exercise may have an important role in the prevention and treatment of major depressive disorder. Available research evidence suggests that exercise reduces a person's risk for developing depression, is effective in alleviating depressive symptoms, and can prevent recurrence of depressive symptoms.
Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have consistently associated high self-reported levels of physical activity with better mental health. For example, cross-sectional analyses have been conducted examining the association among general well-being, ... Read More
Depressogenesis
Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, May 24th 2011 under: Depression
Two terms that are used frequently in the cognitive depression literature, but that apply to all theoretical domains, are depressotypic and depressogenic. Their semantic similarity and awkwardness have caused some confusion, particularly to individuals who are new to the field and to lay observers. Even some researchers inappropriately use the terms interchangeably. Yet they are different and have potentially very different implications for theories of depression.
Depressotypic is the broader term ... Read More
Melancholia
Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, May 24th 2011 under: Depression
The term melancholia has origins in the humoral theory, which imputed disease as reflecting an imbalance in one or more of the bodily humors — blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Melancholia was considered to reflect an excess of black bile, with the two Greek words melas for "black" and khole for "bile" giving the word its origins.
Melancholia was identified by Hippocrates in the 5th century B.C. as describing ... Read More
By rights, lithium should come first in a discussion of the first drug set, because its effectiveness was discovered — or more properly rediscovered — in 1949, just around the same time as mephenesin. The use of lithium in psychiatry — as a hypnotic — was first described in 1870 by Silas Weir Mitchell, a socially prominent Philadelphia neurologist with a large private practice. Lithium is an important treatment, remaining ... Read More
Tricyclic Antidepressants
Posted By Kelly On Tuesday, May 10th 2011 under: Drugs
The success of chlorpromazine wonderfully concentrated minds in the pharmaceutical industry. The discovery did seem capable of being reproduced. Chlorpromazine's phenothiazine nucleus — two phenyl rings held together with a nitrogen and a sulfur atom (giving the impression of three rings) — had been synthesized in 1883 by August Bernthsen in his laboratory in Heidelberg. It was the basis of numerous dyes, and medicinal chemists were entirely familiar with it. ... Read More