Identifying depressive disorders, their causes, and rational approaches to treatment

What is it about?

In this chapter I describe the problems of classifying the various features of the experience of sadness and depression as a psychiatric disorder (depressive or affective disorder). Central to this is the fact that these features (symptoms) are widely distributed in the population. Some are very common, others are rarer, and many people have a few features, while a few seem to suffer a whole range. This means that it is difficult to identify a cut-point above which a depressive disorder can reliably be said to be present. However this is important to do because some treatments require all-or-nothing decisions.

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Why is it important?

Depressive conditions are very common, and cause much suffering to people afflicted by them and their relatives.