Publisher's Synopsis
Depression, a term commonly used in the field relating to social science and behavioural science, especially in the area of Medical Sociology, Psychology and Social Psychology, is used to refer to melancholic state of mind of individuals. According to the report of World Health Organization published in 2012, depression is estimated to affect 350 million people and this fact makes this disease an important global public health issue. This report further says that there is a rising demand on the global level to control this disease along with other mental health conditions. Without treatment, depression has the tendency to assume a chronic course, be recurrent, and over time to be associated with increasing disability. World Health Organization's reports suggest that after heart disease, depression is expected to become the second leading cause of disease burden by the year 2020. Effects of depressive episodes have also been studied with regard to loss in productivity and poor health-related quality of life.
A defining feature of depression as a clinical disorder is the presence of a dysphoric mood, consisting of feeling sad, blue, "down-in-the-dumps," or depressed (Prusoff et al.; 1980). However, such feelings are common in a normal population and do not necessarily indicate clinical impairment. Clinical conceptions of depression, involves something more than the presence of a depressed mood (Rosenthal et al.; 1981)
