depression

(noun)

in psychotherapy and psychiatry, a period of unhappiness or low morale which lasts longer than several weeks and may include ideation of self-inflicted injury or suicide

Related Terms

Examples of depression in the following topics:

  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Mental Illnesses

    • Schizophrenia and depression are just two examples of mental illnesses caused by a disorder of the nervous system.
    • A more detailed discussion of two mental illnesses, schizophrenia and major depression, is given below.
    • Major depression (also referred to as just "depression" or "major depressive disorder") affects approximately 6.7 percent of the adults in the United States each year and is one of the most common mental disorders.
    • The exact causes of major depression are unknown and probably include both genetic and environmental risk factors.
    • Treatments for depression include psychotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, deep-brain stimulation, and prescription medications.

  • Synaptic Plasticity

    • Synaptic plasticity can be either short-term (synaptic enhancement or synaptic depression) or long-term.
    • Two processes in particular, long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), are important forms of synaptic plasticity that occur in synapses in the hippocampus: a brain region involved in storing memories .
    • Short-term synaptic depression can also arise from post-synaptic processes and from feedback activation of presynaptic receptors.
    • Long-term depression (LTD) is essentially the reverse of LTP: it is a long-term weakening of a synaptic connection.
    • Calcium entry through postsynaptic NMDA receptors can initiate two different forms of synaptic plasticity: long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD).

  • Movement at Synovial Joints

    • Depression is the opposite of elevation and involves moving the bone downward, such as after the shoulders are shrugged and the scapulae return to their normal position from an elevated position.
    • (k) Depression of the mandible opens the mouth, while elevation closes it.

  • Fossil Formation

    • This depression is called a mold.
    • The depression in the image is an external mold of a bivalve from the Logan Formation, Lower Carboniferous, Ohio

  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism and ADHD

    • Treatment for autism usually combines behavioral therapies and interventions, along with medications to treat other disorders common to people with autism (depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder).
    • Examples include depression or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

  • Conditioned Behavior

    • Skinner put rats in his boxes that contained a lever that would dispense food to the rat when depressed.

  • Freshwater Biomes

    • Bogs develop in depressions where water flow is low or non-existent.

  • Female Hormones

    • Various symptoms are associated with menopause, including hot flashes, heavy sweating, headaches, some hair loss, muscle pain, vaginal dryness, insomnia, depression, weight gain, and mood swings.