Depressive Disorder: Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

This educational tool provides information about depressive disorder, its types, causes, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. It is targeted towards adolescents and children of 10-17 years and their families. The tool includes statistics and management strategies for depressive disorder in Australia.

Depressive Disorder

Target Audience
 The main target audience for this educational tool is the adolescents and children of
10-17 years.
 In addition, the families of the children are also target audience for this educational
tool.

Learning outcomes
 Target audience will be clearly identified.
 The educational message has to be clear in the presentation.
 List of reference material used in development attached
 Evidences are interpreted and used in a correct manner.
 Information should be presented in a appropriate manner for the
target audience.

What is Depressive disorder
 Depressive disorder refers to feelings of
sadness and it is associated with the
common term depression . The term
depressive disorders are a group of
illness characterized by long-term
depressed mood along with interest loss
in activities.
 Such disorders can disrupt the life of
the patients.
 Depressive disorder or cases of
depression are quite common amomng
the people of Australlia (Health.gov.au
2019).

 .

Types of Depressive Disorders
 In Australia , there are a numbers of mental illnress
that is associated with the depression.
 The most common depressive disorder diagnposed
in Australia is Major depressive Disorder. In this
disorder, the person feels very low sprited and loses
all the enjoyment of the life. Feeliong of guilt is
very common in this disorder.
 Another diagnosed depressive disorder in Australia
is adjustment disorders with depressed mood.
 The post –natal depression that is baby-blue effects
in the pregnant mother is another depressive
disorder in Australia.
 Maniac depression or bipolar mood disorder is
another type of depressive disorfder in Australia
(Health.gov.au 2019).

Who are affected by the Disease
 Depressive disorder is common among the Australian people. 1 out of 5 Austrlians
between the age group of 16-85 years experiences mental illness along with
depression in every year.
 It is documented that almost 45% of Australians will face the problems of depressive
disorders in their whole life.
 The mid-to-late adolesecenvce and youth ( age group of 18-24 years) Australians are
the most vulnerable group for experiencing the depressive disorders . Almost 6% of
the total youth population ( Age 15-19 years) are affected by the depressive
disorders in Australia and 14% are expericing the anxiety disorders.
 4-6% of the total population of Australia are affected by moderate disorder and 9-
12% of people are affected by the mild disorder (Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare 2019)

Statistics

Continued..
 From the graph, it can be Said that, the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
( ADHD) is the most common depressive disorder and almost 312000 patients
in Australia is affected by this ADHD in 2016.
 Anxiety disorder affects alsmost 6.9 % or 291000 of total patients of
depressive disorders.
 2.8% of total affected pateints are suffering from major depressive disorder
that is almost 118,000.
 Lastly, 2.1% are suffering from conduct disorder.

Causes of Depressive Disorder
 The depressive disorder is a combination of various factors genetic factors,
stressful life, anxiety, disrupted personal life, social factors and these may promote
the onset of deprtession among the people.
 Extreme sadness can also be a contribuitive factor to the onset of depression.
 Serious illness is another cause of depressive disorder.
 Consumption of alcohol and drug can also promote the depression among the
patients.
 Certain personality such as people with perfectionist tendencies, low self-esteemed
people are more vulnerable to grow the symptoms of depressive disorders
(Healthdirect.gov.au 2019).

Signs and Symptoms
 The main Signs and symptoms of depressive disorder
are-
 Emotional symptoms
 loss of interest
 Isolation from the friends and family
 Feeling of worthlessness
 Feeling sad or empty
 Suicidal tendency
 Physical Symptoms
 Insomnia
 headaches
 Feeling sick
 lowered sex drive
 loss of apetite
 weight loss (Healthdirect.gov.au 2019).

Diagnosis of Depressive Disorder
 The primary step of detecting the
depression is to visit a doctor who is
professionally treating mental ill
patients.
 The doctor will perform a detail
mental health assessment and a
comprehensive interview.
 The assessment comprises of
questions about symptoms and their
effect on the life of the patient.
 Assessing history of the patients

Continued..
 Questions about the alcohol and drug use of the patients
 Doctor should ask questions about the sleeping pattern and daily
schedule of the patients from the family members of the patient.
 Doctors can perform physical examination to exclude the possibility
of any physical problems.
 After taking all the information, the diagnosis should be made
according to the DSM5 criteria (Healthdirect.gov.au 2019).

Treatment of Depressive Disorder
 Depression is a serious disorder and it should be
treated seriously.
 There are different type of treatments for the
depressive disorders such as pharmacoligal
therapy, psychological therapy, medical
interventions, self-programs.
 In pharmacological therapy selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors, serotonin-noradrenaline
reuptake inhibitors, monoamine oxidase inhibitors
can be used. In addition , various antipsychotuic
can also be used to treat severe depression.
 As a part of other medical interventions,
repetitive transcranial stimulations , bright light
therapy, electroconvulsive therapy can be used
(Healthdirect.gov.au 2019).

Continued…
 As a part of the psychological therapy,
cognitive behavior therapy , mindfullness-
based cognitive therapy can also be applied in
the treatment of depression patients
 Along with this, interpersonal skill training,
problem solving therapy, family centered
therapy , drug and alcohol counselling, relapse
prevention strategies, anxiety and stress
management can be used in case of depressive
disorders (Healthdirect.gov.au 2019).

Management of Depressive Disorder
 As a part of the management programs of the depressive disorders among
the adolescent and young people various measures can be taken.
 Awareness programs can be launched to educate the young adults and
their families so that they can identify the sympytoms of depressive
disorders.
 In various report, it is observed that, the social stigma is one of the main
barrier in the way of treating the depressive disorder. To reduce the social
stigma, community awareness initaitives can be taken.
 Peer support can be given to the boys and girls to lower the youth’s
stigma.
 Social and interpersoinal support should be provided.
 Youths can be recruited to eduvcate the youth patients of depressive
disorders.
 Youths can also provide psychoeducation to the families.
 Information regarding seeking help, managing the stress should be
provided in a easy way (Excellenceforchildandyouth.ca 2019).

Continued..
 Modern technology can be used as a part of the management.
 Mental health service should be designed in a such way that it is capable of
attracting the youths .
 Mental health information can be shown in the social media and in various video
games as it is observed that such online platforms are visited by the youths
mostly.
 In a study it was reported that, the most of the adolescents and youths access
internet and websites in a daily manner ( Boak et al. 2014). So it will be vey
effective to use this method in raising the awareness among the youths.
 During the development of new initaitives, the participation and engagement is
highly recommended (Excellenceforchildandyouth.ca, 2019).

Conclusion
 Hence it can be concluded that, depressive disorder is of the
most crucial area of concern in Australia and it should be treated
in a serious way. It is observed that the adolescence and young
adults are most vulnerable to the disease. However, with proper
medications and other psychological therapy, depressive
disorders can be managed in a well manner.

References
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare., 2019. Mental health services in Australia, Prevalence and
policies - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/mental-
health-services/mental-health-services-in-australia/report-contents/summary-of-mental-health-services-in-
australia/prevalence-and-policies [Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].
Health.gov.au., 2019. Department of Health | What are the main types of depressive disorder?Available
at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/publications/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-w-whatdep-
toc~mental-pubs-w-whatdep-typ [Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].
Health.gov.au., 2019. Department of Health | What is a depressive disorder?Available at:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mental-pubs-w-whatdep [Accessed 2 Feb.
2019].
Healthdirect.gov.au., 2019. Causes of Depression. Available at:
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/depression-treatment [Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].
Healthdirect.gov.au., 2019. Symptoms of Depression. Available at:
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/depression-treatment [Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].
Healthdirect.gov.au., 2019. Depression treatment. Available at:
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/depression-treatment [Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].
Healthdirect.gov.au., 2019. Diagnosis of depression. Available at:
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/diagnosis-of-depression [Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].

Continued..
Boak, A., Hamilton, H. A., Adlaf, E. M., Beitchman, J. H., Wolfe, D. and
Mann, R. E., 2014. The mental health and well-being of Ontario students,
1991-2013: Detailed OSDUHS findings (CAMH Research Document Series
No. 38). Toronto: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Excellenceforchildandyouth.ca., 2019. Strategies and resources to
engage boys and young men in mental health services | Ontario Centre
of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health. [online] Available at:
http://www.excellenceforchildandyouth.ca/resource-hub/strategies-and-
resources-engage-boys-and-young-men-mental-health-services
[Accessed 4 Feb. 2019].

THANK YOU