Mood disorder or "affective disorder" is a term now widely applied to a wide range of general conditions in which the most prominent symptom is an elevated or depressive mood. The most extreme forms of excitement (mania) or depression (melancholy) have been recognized since the writings of Hippocrates or earlier. , and results in significant morbidity and mortality.However, the boundary between illness and normal experience continues to be debated, and depression is often relieved because the symptoms are thought to be inexplicable given the individual situation. Mood disorders are often called affective disorders, because affect is the external display of moods, emotions that are felt internally. Depression and mania are often seen as opposite ends of the affective or mood spectrum. Classically, mania and depression are separate "poles", giving rise to the terms unipolar depression (i.e., patients experiencing only a down or depressed pole) and bipolar (i.e., patients experiencing either a manic or a depressed/depressed pole at different times). Major affective conditions including major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) are associated with significant disability and psychosocial impairment over the course of life.They are often not sufficiently recognized or diagnosed because of the complexity and heterogeneity of their clinical presentation.This heterogeneity is likely related to the presence of susceptibility shared genetics and the interaction of physical and psychosocial factors across the life span (Johnstone, 2010)(Friedman, 2014)(Stahl, 2013)
Depression and mania can even occur together, which is called a mixed mood state. Mania can also occur to a lesser degree, known as hypomania, or switch so quickly between mania and depression that the cycle is fast. Mood disorders can be usefully visualized not only to differentiate different mood disorders from one another, but also to summarize the course of the disease for individual patients by showing them mapped to a mood chart. Thus, moods range from hypomania to mania at the top, to euthymia (or normal mood) in the middle, to dysthymia and depression at the bottom. (Stahl, 2013)(Friedman, 2014)(Serafini, 2017)
Major depressive disorder is a depressive disorder that causes significant morbidity and mortality in individuals of all ages and races. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) of the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown the occurrence of the same problem throughout the world that major depressive disorder increases the risk of attempted suicide which if not treated properly will lead to suicide that takes many lives. People who have attempted suicide have a 100-fold greater risk of committing suicide when compared to the normal population. (Marwick K., 2013)
Nursing Diagnosis that arise in patients with depression:
Risk for Suicide (At risk for self-inflicted, life-threatening injury) related to depression.
Nursing interventions in patients with depression include:
Introduce yourself to the client by greeting the client in a friendly manner, both verbal and non-verbal, always making eye contact during interactions and paying attention to the client's basic needs.
Interact with patients as often as possible with empathy.
Listen to patient statements with empathy and use more non-verbal language. For example: giving a touch, nodding.
Pay attention to the patient's speech and respond as desired.
Speak in a low voice, clear, concise, simple, and easy to understand.
Accept patients as they are, without comparing with others.
Patients can use adaptive coping.
Encourage the patient to express their feelings and say that the nurse understands what the patient is feeling.
Ask the patient the usual ways to deal with feelings of sadness/pain.
Discuss with the patient the benefits of commonly used coping.
Together with the patient looking for various alternative coping.
Encourage the patient to choose the most appropriate and acceptable coping.
Encourage the patient to try the chosen coping.
Instruct the patient to try other alternatives in problem solving.
