
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Melancholic depression
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Melancholic Depression, or ‘depression with melancholic features’ is a subtype of depression characterized by the inability to find pleasure in positive things combined with physical agitation, insomnia, or decreased appetite. Roughly 10% of people with depression suffer from Melancholic Depression.
Diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV-TR)
Diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV-TR)
The DSM-IV-TR, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, defines Depression with Melancholic Features as a subtype of depression characterized by:
- At least one of the following:
- Loss of pleasure in all or almost all, activities
- Lack of mood reactivity to usually pleasurable stimuli (can’t feel much better, even when something good happens)
- At least three of the following:
- Distinct quality of depressed mood (i.e., the depressed mood is experienced as distinctly different from the kind of feeling experienced after the death of a loved one)
- Depression is regularly worse in the morning
- Early morning awakening (at least 2 hours before usual time of awakening)
- Marked psychomotor retardation or agitation
- Significant anorexia or weight loss
- Excessive or inappropriate guilt
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
