Battling Depression

Thu 09 Mar 2006 12:00 AM CST
WASHINGTON DC (myDNA News)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first antidepressant skin patch last month despite several warnings associated with the drug.

To be sold under the name Emsam, the transdermal patch delivers a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), a chemical that blocks an enzyme in the brain that breaks down neurotransmitters.

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Clinical depression is a state of sadness or melancholia that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual’s social functioning and/or activities of daily living. The diagnosis may be applied when an individual meets a sufficient number of the symptomatic criteria for the depression spectrum as suggested in the DSM-IV-TR or ICD-9/10. An individual is often seen to suffer from what is termed a “clinical depression” without fully meeting the various criteria advanced for a specific diagnosis on the depression spectrum. There is an ongoing debate regarding the relative importance of genetic or environmental factors, or gross brain problems versus psychosocial functioning.

Although a mood characterized by sadness is often colloquially referred to as depression, clinical depression is something more than just a temporary state of sadness. Symptoms lasting two weeks or longer, and of a severity that begins to interfere with typical social functioning and/or activities of daily living, are considered to constitute clinical depression.

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