Depression

A mood disorder  characterized by a long term intensely sad or hopeless mood, pessimistic thinking, a loss of enjoyment and interest in one’s usual activities, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, decreased  concentration, reduced energy and vitality, fatigue, slowness of thought and action, loss of appetite, and insomnia or hypersomnia.  Some people have thoughts of death and even suicide.  Major depression may require the use of antidepressant drugs, electroconvulsive therapy, or cognitive psychotherapy and behavioral therapy.  Women are affected twice as often as men.