Educationals

There are a lot of misconception, prejudices and biases against psychological (mental) illnesses. Recent research has clearly demonstrated the role of chemicals in the brain in these illnesses and established beyond doubt that the patients are not behaving, thinking and feeling in a particular manner purposely and that the symptoms are not under their control. This booklet is an effort to present facts about the most commonly seen mental illness .....

Depression or Depressive Illness .....

This information is useful not only for the patients and their family members, but also the general public.It is hoped that scientific information presented in this booklet, the misconceptions, prejudices as also the biases would be corrected and the illness along with the suffering patients would be understood better.

Introduction

A 35 year old housewife, Sushma, was suffering from chest pain, palpitation, breathlessness, headache, sleeplessness, weakness and poor appetite for over six to eight months. The symptoms had increased gradually over the last one month. She had consulted many doctors and thorough investigations were conducted including cardiogram, stress test, 2D Echo etc. for cardiac disease. All the above investigations were normal and doctors used to say comment "there is nothing wrong with you, you are only imagining the symptoms, this is all psychological". On a relatives advice the patient consulted a psychiatrist. On further inquiry it was found that in addition to the above symptoms she had lost interest in practically everything including her only son, she had no desire and initiative to do any work, had become irritable and had developed intolerance to noise. There were frequent crying spells and she felt that life was not worth living....

"it was better to die".

This like many other is a typical case of depressive illness presenting with a combination of physical complaints and normal clinical investigations for physical illness. The patient was given antidepressant drugs and psychotherapy. Within ten days, her physical symptoms improved and she resumed working .In four weeks she had recovered very well and was almost the same as her normal self.

Depressive illness is a very commonly seen phenomenon all around us. Many people who are depressed are puzzled and confused by their feeling. They cannot understand themselves, and they do not expect any one else to understand them either. The people around do not understand the situation and often suggest that the person should pull herself together, get out more and stop dwelling on how she felt. This of course does not work and the patient feels more miserable then ever before... withdrawing further from friends and family and reluctant to consult a doctor as she feels she would be wasting his time and that he would not understand her.

All these peculiar feelings- the bewilderment, the sense of inadequacy, the hopelessness, the inability to describe just how one feels - are in fact typical symptoms of depression. They are not only very upsetting: they are misleading and very unfortunate, as today ...

Depressive illness is a treatable illness... In the course of the booklet we will examine why these occur, who are at a maximum risk, the treatments as well as the myths and realities surrounding the disease.

Depressive illness

Depressive illness is universal and has been prevalent since time immemorial. Its clinical features were described in ancient Indian literature by Sudarka, a renowned playwright of 2nd century B C. It figures prominently in the sacred writing of India, its mythologies, literature - the twin epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna was afflicted with the illness which was relived by Lord Krishna's firms handling and counselling. Abraham Lincoln the president of USA and Winston Churchill the prime minister of England suffered from depressive illness.

Depressive illness is observed in people from all countries and every culture, affecting both the sexes, sparing neither the rich nor the poor, tormenting all ages, forcing the exit of some through self-destruction and steadfastly maintaining its core clinical features down the centuries.

The term "depression" is so commonly used in everyday transactions that it fails to convince the people around that "Depression" could be a disease in itself. The depth and intensity of depressive illness is usually not recognised and appreciated by the family members and people around.

Depressive illness is in fact one of the most agonizing illness and its real intensity is experienced only by the sufferer.