Managing Depression as a Long Term Condition

Depression is a ubiquitous term which is used to denote a wide variety of mental conditions. In common language people use the term depression to refer to an experience of undesirable or negative emotions. However, in mental health practice, the term depression is used to refer to a specific syndrome characterized by a cluster of phenomena [1]. It is important to make this distinction as there has been valid concerns about the increase in antidepressant prescribing [2], which may be related to over diagnosis of depression [3]. The syndrome of depression is associated with changes in mood, biological functions, cognitive dysfunctions, and loss of pleasure [1]. All health care practitioners should be aware that such a syndrome and its variants can assume a chronic course. Therefore, strategies and very importantly-services to manage the condition with a chronic perspective are important. Amongst the lay public chronic is often assumed to be irremediable, therefore use of the phrase long term condition may be more acceptable. It is important to consider that health education may be necessary to portray a long term approach as feasible and effective in the public's mind.