Affective disorders

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Affective disorders or mood disorders are mental disorders reflected in disturbances of mood. They may be regarded as lying along the affective spectrum a grouping of related psychiatric and medical disorders which may accompany bipolar, unipolar, and schizoaffective disorders at statistically higher rates than would normally be expected.

The affective disorders include:

• Depression (or unipolar depression), including subtypes:
  • Major Depression
  • Major Depression (Recurrent)
  • Major Depression with psychotic symptoms (psychotic depression)
  • Dysthymia
  • Postpartum depression
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Bipolar disorder, a mood disorder described by alternating periods of mania and depression (and in some cases rapid cycling, mixed states, and psychotic symptoms). Subtypes include:
  • Bipolar I
  • Bipolar II
  • Cyclothymia
• Mania

Schizoaffective disorder is a somewhat vaguely-defined term that describes patients that show symptoms of both schizophrenia and one of the mood disorders.

There are also forms of mood disorder that are specific to women, related to physiological events such as pregnancy, giving birth or the menopause - these include Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and Postpartum Depression.

The generally-accepted definitions of these terms can be found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Most psychiatrists believe that all mood disorders are in some ways related, both symptomatically and biochemically, as a part of a single spectrum of disorders. However, some psychiatrists claim that bipolar disorder may actually be biochemically closer to schizophrenia than (unipolar) depression.

See also

• Affective psychosis
• Affective sciences
• Affective spectrum
• Anxiety disorder
• Personality disorder
• Mood (affective) disorders

Key texts

Papers

• Kessler, R.C. (1994)The U.S. National Comorbidity Survey: Onset, chronicity and comorbidity patterns of mood disorders in the general population. In S.Z. Langer, N. Brunello, G. Racagni, & J. Mendlewicz (Eds.), Critical Issues in the Treatment of Affective Disorders. Basel: Karger. pp. 154-157.
• Keller, M. C. & Nesse, R. M. (2005). Is low mood an adaptation? Evidence for subtypes with symptoms that match precipitants. Journal of Affective Disorders, 86, 27-35. Full text
• Nesse, R.M. (2006). Evolutionary Explanations for Mood and Mood Disorders. In D.J. Stein , D.J. Kupfer, & A.F. Schatzberg, (Eds.), The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Mood Disorders, American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington DC, pp. 159-175. Full text
• Tsuang MT, Woolson RF, Winokur G, Crowe RR: Stability of psychiatric diagnosis. Schizophrenia and affective disorders followed up over a 30- to 40-year period.

Additional material

Papers

• Google Scholar

Arch Gen Psychiatry 1981, 38:535-539.

External links

• Caffeinism's Mimicry of Mental Illness
• Bland, R.C. (1997) Epidemiology of Affective Disorders: A Review. Can J Psychiatry, 42:367–377.
• Mood disorders at the University of California's Neuropsychiatric Institute
• Female mood disorders at the University of California's Neuropsychiatric Institute
• Open Directory Project: Mood Disorders
• The Mood Disorders Association of Ontario
• TrappedMinds.org Mood Disorder Support and Resources
• Mood Disorders Support Group of New York City

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