In a study involving more than 2,500 people who had experienced a major depressive disorder at some time in their lives, researchers found that about two in five people (39%) were able to fully recover and experience full mental health.
Each person's recovery is different. Some recover in a few weeks or months. But for others, depression is a long-term illness. In about 20% to 30% of people who have an episode of depression, the symptoms don't entirely go away.
According to the Mayo Clinic, patients with untreated long-term depression are more prone to sleep disruptions, heart disease, weight gain or loss, weakened immune systems, and physical pain. Depression can result in an unhealthy cycle.
People who are depressed cannot simply “pull themselves together” and be cured. Without proper treatment, including antidepressants and/or psychotherapy, untreated clinical depression can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people with depression.
For some people, depression might only be episodic and overcome within a matter of weeks or months. However, for others diagnosed with major depression , the condition could persist for years, affecting their lifestyle and quality of life.
Dysthymia is a milder, but long-lasting form of depression. It's also called persistent depressive disorder. People with this condition may also have bouts of major depression at times.
Clinical depression is a chronic condition, but it usually occurs in episodes, which can last several weeks or months. You'll likely have more than one episode in your lifetime. This is different from persistent depressive disorder, which is mild or moderate depression that lasts for at least two years.
A depression not only makes a person feel sad and dejected – it can also damage the brain permanently, so the person has difficulties remembering and concentrating once the disease is over. Up to 20 percent of depression patients never make a full recovery.
Recent studies suggest that the increased level of stress associated with depression may raise levels of glucocorticoid. This steroid can have harmful effects on the nervous system, damaging a region of the brain called the hippocampus that is crucial to creating long-term memories.
The most prominent symptoms of MDD include a severe and persistent low mood, profound sadness, or a sense of despair. The way depression affects the brain can directly result in personality changes.
Sometimes you might hear depression being called 'major depressive disorder'. There are some other types of depression too: Persistent depressive disorder (PDD). PDD is continuous depression that lasts for two years or more. You may also hear it called dysthymia or chronic depression.
Psychological counseling (psychotherapy) by a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health professional can be very effective. For many people, psychotherapy combined with medication works best. It can help identify underlying concerns that may be adding to your depression.
A PET scan can compare brain activity during periods of depression (left) with normal brain activity (right). An increase of blue and green colors, along with decreased white and yellow areas, shows decreased brain activity due to depression.
Research suggests that depression doesn't spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, and stressful life events.
It can impair your attention and memory, as well as your information processing and decision-making skills. It can also lower your cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt your goals and strategies to changing situations) and executive functioning (the ability to take all the steps to get something done).
It's estimated that 15% of the adult population will experience depression at some point in their lifetime.
In the DSM-IV, chronic depression is defined as the persistence of the full criteria for a major depressive episode for at least 2 years.
Globally, an estimated 5% of adults suffer from depression. More women are affected by depression than men. Depression can lead to suicide.
At What Age Is Depression Most Common? According to CDC data from 2019, 21% of adults experiencing any depressive symptoms in the most recent two weeks were between 18 and 29 years old. This incidence is the largest among all adult age groups.
Although psychotic depression itself cannot evolve into schizophrenia, when severe depression is untreated or undertreated, it's possible for the resulting distress and side effects to trigger an underlying psychotic disorder, such as schizoaffective disorder.
In addition, being introverted is linked to spontaneously remembering more negative life events. Together, both personality traits — neuroticism and introversion — are linked to depression and anxiety. On the other hand, people with stable emotions who are more extraverted are at lower risk of depression and anxiety.
An individual with high neuroticism also experiences emotions such as fear, frustration, and sadness more often, generally viewing the world through a pessimistic lens. This leaves an individual more vulnerable to the development of mental health disorders, and is closely linked with depression.