Understanding Depression: Clinical Manifestation and Psychopathology

Running head: DEPRESSION
DEPRESSION
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

DEPRESSION
1
Introduction
Depression is the psychiatric disorder with high incidence in the growing population
worldwide. It is common and at the same time is the severe mental illness that destroys the peace
of life of people. The symptom and sign associated with depression are often considered as
frequent and life-threating. According to the World Health organization depression is the major
cause of mental disorders (World Health Organization, 2017). It is described by the diagnostic
and statistical manual of mental disorder (DSM-V) that depression leads to depressed mood, lack
of interest, fatigue, altered activities related to psychomotor and feeling of worthlessness
(Cooper, 2018). It is also seen that though there are numerous drugs available in the market for
treating depression, the effectiveness of the drugs fails to attain full remission. Therefore, the
main aim of the paper is to critically discuss the mental health issue related to depression. The
paper firstly includes clinical manifestation and psychopathology of depression. Secondly,
address the psychopharmacology and treatment for depression.
Response 1.
Depression is the term which is widely used for the emotional response of life and
disappointments. Depression is considered as a mental disorder, and that is known to show
prevalence in each age group of people (Janneke et al., 2015). Depression is represented with
various sign and symptom, which can be visualised by changes in the behaviour and physical
health of the individual. The clinical manifestation of depression varies among the different
individual of different age groups. The diagnosis for the depression is based on the clinical
judgement of the sign and symptom observed by the health care professional and reported by the
patients. It is suggested in the study of Kanner (2018) that clinical manifestation of depression is

DEPRESSION
2
categorised as subjective and objective. The subjective signs are reported by the patient
regarding their mood and feeling. The objective sign is indicted by the changes in physical
appearance like weight loss or weight gain. According to the “International classification of
diseases and related health problems, 10th revision” (ICD-10) depression is categorized as mild,
moderate and severe which is based on the clinical judgment, clinical manifestation, the severity
of the sign and symptoms, and the influence on the individual. According to the study of van
Borkulo et al. (2015), it is inferred that the subjective signs of depression are depressed mood,
lack of interest in the daily living activities, increased fatigue, mood swing, anxiety, feeling of
sadness, emotional trauma. These signs continue to be observed and make the people hopeless,
worthless and guilty for their activities. People tend to feel irritable and become restless. They
are not able to concentrate in their life and may become insomniac.
The objective signs include changes in weight, headaches, abdominal distress and fatigue,
and body pain. Such clinical manifestation is due to the emergence of negative feeling which
sends signals to the amygdala centre in the limbic system of the brain which is the centre for the
emotionally charged memories and has active mood structures (Jokela et al., 2016). It gives rise
to the sign as mentioned above and symptoms of depression.
The psychopathology of the depression it is related to the genetic, biological, social and
psychological cause that can help to formulate the treatment plan and understand the course of
the illness. Depression can occur due to adverse impact of the social life and community. It is
suggested from the study of Salehinejad et al. (2017) that discrimination and racism are the
common cause of depression where people are socially excluded. It is seen in the study of van
Dijk et al. (2016) that depression in an individual can also due to prolonged illness, family issues
or personal problem of life. The changes can see the effect of depression in the psychology,

DEPRESSION
3
mood, behaviour and thoughts of the peoples. Referring to the psychopathology of depression,
recent studies have highlighted the monoamine theory, which describes the noradrenergic and
serotonergic system as the potent cause of depression. According to Maletic et al. (2017),
dysfunction of the serotonergic and noradrenergic system of the brain. For example, serotonin
being a monoamine is involved in the control of physiologic activities like pain, aggression and
mood. Dysfunction of serotonergic system leads to anxiety and mood disorder. Such finding has
led to the development of anti-depressant drugs which activate the monoamine activity of brain.
It is noted that people who show symptoms of the depression have defective endocrine and
immune system in which the neurotransmitter like GABA and glutamate become defective and
functionless, which affects the hippocampus of brain. It is associated with the changes in
behaviour and lead to mental illness (Fakhoury, 2016)
Response 2.
The pharmacology is related to the use of effective medication that would be useful to
treat mental disorder like depression. The psychopharmacology for the depression is mainly
linked with the action of the neurotransmitter that is known to cause depression and associated
symptoms. The use of the psychopharmacology approaches conceptualises the depression as the
imbalance in the chemical mediator of the brain. This requires the effective medication will
lower the progress of the illness. Three common antidepressant medication, Monoamine oxidase
inhibitors (MAOIs), Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and serotonin reuptake inhibitors are
considered as the frontline strategies of psychopharmacology for reducing the incidence of
depression.
It is evident from the study of Songtachalert et al. (2018) where the author has mentioned
about the changes in the signals of serotonin, GABA and glutamate has the potential to impair