Depressive Disorder-Definition Compiled By Me As It Relates To My Specific Situation

March 16, 2015

Bayo Elizabeth Cary, Diagnosis: Depressive Disorder NOS 311

General Depression

Depressive Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (DD-NOS) is designated by the code 311 in the DSM-IV for depressive disorders that are impairing but do not fit any of the officially specified diagnoses. According to the DSM-IV, DD-NOS encompasses "any depressive disorder that does not meet the criteria for a specific disorder."

For most people who suffer the condition, their life will be significantly affected Depressive Disorder NOS can make many aspects of a person’s daily life difficult to manage, inhibiting their ability to enjoy the things that used to make them happy. Sufferers of the disorder tend to isolate themselves from their friends and families; they tend to lose interest in some activities, experience behavioural changes and sleeping disorders.

DSM IV-TR classification

Minor depressive disorder: episodes of at least 2 weeks of depressive symptoms but with fewer than the five items required for Major Depressive Disorder.

Symptoms of the disorder may arise due to several reasons. These include:

• Distress due to medical conditions
• Environmental effects and situations

Treatment

It is possible for this disorder to progress over time. A patient suffering from the disorder can improve the condition with treatments. There are several types of therapies that may improve the condition, but depending on a patient’s experience of the disorder or the cause of the disorder, treatments will vary.

• Psychotherapy including behaviour therapy, Gestalt therapy, Adlerian therapy, psychoanalytic therapy and existential therapy.
• Pharmacotherapy through medications including antidepressants.

Comments: The medicine Zoloft improves my condition significantly, whereas medications, which are classified as anti-psychotic medications, cause my state of mental health to deteriorate. Anti-psychotic medications, cause me to become severely depressed, to the point of becoming suicidal, and they cause me to become psychotic, and mentally, and emotionally unstable.  I was misdiagnosed, for many years, as bipolar, and schizophrenic, the anti-psychotic medications, associated with the treatment of those disorders, were detrimental to my well being.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_Disorder_Not_Otherwise_Specified