Depression is a complex medical disorder and has been recognized since the days of Hippocrates. In the 1950s and 60s, depression was categorized into two types, endogenous and neurotic (reactive). Endogenous depression is caused by something inside the body, perhaps genetic or nutritional. Neurotic or reactive depression has a definitive external precipitating factor, such as the death of a spouse, friend, child or loss of a job. In the 1970s and 80s, the global impact of depression was fully realized and the focus of attention shifted from the cause of depression to its effects on the afflicted individuals and their treatment.
Depression is one of the most crippling, but misunderstood disorders ever encountered. Research has come up with several different types of depression now, each with it’s own unique characteristics and symptoms. However, they’ve also found that some types of depression actually overlap into other kinds too and that they’re original diagnosis of a patient could be wrong. One of the types of depression that is extremely difficult to diagnose is called “bipolar disorder”. Unfortunately, new studies have found that because of these new overlap theories that it can now actually take up to five years (yes, five years) before a person could possibly be correctly diagnosed as “manic” or bipolar. |