Persistent Depressive Disorder
A mild but long-term form of depression.
Dysthymia is defined as a low mood occurring for at least two years, along with at least two other symptoms of depression.
Examples of symptoms include lost interest in normal activities, hopelessness, low self-esteem, low appetite, low energy, sleep changes, and poor concentration.
Treatments include medications and talk therapy.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW161
Diagnosis: Persistent Depressive Disorder-Dysthymia
US Patients: 3-6% during lifetime
World Patients: 105 Mil per year (1.5% of the population)
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset: 21, before 21 called “early onset”
Brain Area: In women, the corpus callosum and frontal lobes differ from normal; the amygdala, insula (sadness) and cingulate gyrus(emotions)
Symptoms: 2-years for adults; 1-year for children, deep depression with longer-lasting insomnia or hypersomnia and low self-esteem
Progression: little enjoyment in anything, suicidal behaviors, other disorders or addictions; hopelessness about life
Causes: genetic for 50% of cases; 75% have other physical illnesses, disorders or addictions; 95% have episodes of major depression.
Medications: antidepressants, but 6-8 weeks before progress; SSRIs, lithium
Therapies: cognitive therapy, better sleep, exercise
Youtube Video:
Life with Persistent Depressive Disorder (also known as Dysthymia)
Amazon or Library Book: Persistent Depressive Disorders
Click the book to link or order from Amazon.
Support Group: feelingkindablue.org; 866-728-7983
(Provident Behavioral Health)
Contact your local Social Security office for possible Disability Benefits through their Disability Determination Services,
Section 12.04
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Trends in Postpartum Depression by Race, Ethnicity, and Prepregnancy Body Mass Indexby Nehaa Khadka on November 20, 2024
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this cross-sectional study, PPD diagnosis increased significantly across all racial and ethnic groups and BMI categories over the past decade. While rising PPD may reflect improved screening and diagnosis practices, the persistently high rates highlight the need to develop and implement interventions to prevent the condition while expanding efforts to mitigate the impact of PPD on maternal and child health.
- Improvement of persistent impairments in executive functions and attention following electroconvulsive therapy in a case control longitudinal follow up studyby Åsa Hammar on November 20, 2024
CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that there was no cognitive worsening after ECT treatment. An improvement in several of the tests measuring inhibition, attention, and processing speed was parallel to symptom reduction, with the former showing associations to symptom change, suggesting state-related effects from improved mood. Still, the patient group performed significantly worse on most measures both pre-treatment and at the short and long-term follow-ups, indicating prevailing trait or...
- An adaptive multi-graph neural network with multimodal feature fusion learning for MDD detectionby Tao Xing on November 17, 2024
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is an affective disorder that can lead to persistent sadness and a decline in the quality of life, increasing the risk of suicide. Utilizing multimodal data such as electroencephalograms and patient interview audios can facilitate the timely detection of MDD. However, existing depression detection methods either consider only a single modality or do not fully account for the differences and similarities between modalities in multimodal approaches, potentially...
- Bridging Three Years of Insights: Examining the Association Between Depression and Gallstone Diseaseby Huai Zhi Wang on November 15, 2024
CONCLUSIONS: Depression is significantly associated with a higher risk of gallstones, supported by genetic evidence suggesting a causal link. These findings highlight the importance of considering depression in gallstone risk assessments and management strategies.