Unipolar Depression

Unipolar depression is characterized by a combination of two types of symptoms: neurovegetative and emotional-cognitive. Neurovegetative symptoms are those symptoms that are directly related to the body (e.g., insomnia/hypersomnia, dysregulated eating, fatigue, and decreased energy). Emotional-cognitive symptoms involve those symptoms that are related to how a person processes information (e.g., suicidal ideation, decreased concentration, feeling worthless, anhedonia, and depressed mood). A combination of these depression symptoms must be unremitting for more than 2 weeks in order to be diagnosed with depression. Common treatments for depression include cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, antidepressant medications, or a combination of these treatments. There are also a number of complementary treatments that are gaining empirical research support for use in combination with traditional approaches to enhance treatment outcome ..