Depression

Depression is a very common condition that may affect up to 20 percent of the population.  It is frequently at the core of symptoms that lead a patient to seek medical attention.

The cause of depression is not completely understood, but likely results from multiple factors.  These include biological predisposition, abnormal brain neurochemistry, situational environmental influences, and ineffective coping skills and mechanisms.

Depression tends to occur more often in women, and may produce a characteristic set of symptoms.  These include sadness, guilt, loneliness, sleep derangements, and diet changes.  The sufferer may feel life is not worth living and may even contemplate or attempt suicide.  Like other diseases there is a wide spectrum of severity of the illness.

There are currently very effective medications for depression as well as a wide variety of psychotherapeutic approaches.

Patients with depression are often referred to neurologists when their symptoms are not recognized as psychiatric in origin.