These symptoms can be seen in many different psychiatric and mental disorders, which can lead to more specific diagnoses of an individual's condition.
However, some of the situations might not fall under specific categories listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Generally, a person's mood is affected by thoughts and feelings of being sad or down on themself or by a loss of interest in nearly all activities.
People can experience ups and downs in their life everyday where an event, action, stress or many other factors can affect their feelings on that day.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists the major depressive symptoms.
Other depressive symptoms include significant weight loss or weight gain without trying to diet (an increase/decrease in appetite can provide clues as well), insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation or psychomotor retardation, fatigue or loss of energy, and feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt.
Typically, patients with minor depression were treated by watchful waiting, prescribed antidepressants, and given brief supportive counseling, but Problem-Solving Treatment for Primary Care (PST-PC) is a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy that has gained popularity.
In one study, PST-PC and Paroxetine, an antidepressant, were shown to be equally effective in significantly reducing symptoms.
[6] In another study, PST-PC was compared with the more typical care of the time and shown to reduce symptoms more quickly.
By the 1950s, it was clear that depression could be both a mental and largely physical disease, thus being able to be treated through both psychotherapy and medication.
The DSM-IV-TR includes a statement detailing the difficulty of diagnosis, "symptoms meeting research criteria for minor depressive disorder can be difficult to distinguish from periods of sadness that are an inherent part of everyday life".