DEPRESSION – A DISORDER WITH MULTIPLE FACES

Depression is one of the most common causes of mental and physical illness that can lead to tragic consequences. It has a wide variety of symptoms so it seems to be ubiquitous.

It is important to be able to recognize its symptoms and signs. It should be noted that in a depressed patient the depressive mood may not always be obvious or even present (although it is the most common experience) symptoms may predominate e.g. from the autonomic nervous system, such as sleep, appetite disorders, fatigue and exhaustion, decreased libido, psychomotor retardation or agitation. Symptoms of mobilization, such as loss of interest, helplessness, lack of hope, and finally symptoms that affect thinking and perception such as thoughts and feelings of guilt, low self-esteem, sometimes delusions and some other variety of physical symptoms.

The most important of all is that feeling that is severely affected and present, which is depressed mood, lethargy, anxiety. We now know that in most cases the treatment required for the patient is pharmaceutical and secondarily psychotherapeutic.

Spyros Tzeranis, Psychiatrist and Scientific Director of the Clinic.