Major depressive disorder is a severe and pervasive case of low mood that is best known to put an individual into an abnormal disinterest to normally pleasurable day to day activities. It can be best defined by the inability of a person to see life in a positive and hopeful way, robbing him of happiness, contentment and fulfillment. Also termed as clinical depression or unipolar depression, major depressive disorders can lead to suicide. In fact 60% of the people who committed suicide has major depressive episode at least once in their lifetime. This makes this psychological disorder serious, demanding proper management and/or treatment in the earliest time possible.

Causes

Major depressive disorder is caused by many things as presented by the many theories in psychiatry. One of which is the biological factor. In this theory the monoamine is the key biological element. Varying Monoamine levels can disrupt the normal functioning of the brain. Other theories are based on heredity which simply implies that depressive tendencies are passed on from parent to offspring. Some theories are anchored to a person’s psychology and personality with depressive tendencies leaning on negative emotionality.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing major depressive disorder needs the help of a certified mental health professional like a psychiatrist. They use a depression rating scale that considers inputs from the patient’s daily activity, family history, biographical history, and symptoms. Once the severity of the depression is established, treatment and management interventions can be done. It is common for doctors to first have the patient undergo blood tests to rule out thyroid issues which can also cause mood fluctuations. For older people tests are done to rule out Alzheimer’s disease which can also cause mood variations in the elderly.

Management and Treatment

Major depressive disorder is a manageable condition. In fact it is important to seek treatment to arrest the problem before it gets worse and push people towards suicide, the bitter yet common end of recurrent depression. What can be done? The most common is psychotherapy which is basically a counseling session that helps patients get over the trap of negative emotions. But the most common and deemed effective approach for clinical depression is medication. One of the most known drugs for major depressive disorder is Lexapro (Escitalopram). It is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that regulates some chemicals in the brain that causes depression.

But like any other antidepressants, Lexapro is not an over the counter drug and should be used with the supervision of a mental health professional.  Lexapro is safe to use by children at least 12 years of age.Bear in mind that it is important that your doctor knows if you have kidney problems, liver disease, diabetes, or heart disease before he or she prescribes the drug for you. It is also important that you forego taking Lexapro if you are also medicating with pimozide and methylene blue injection. MAO inhibitors can also negatively interact with Lexapro so both drugs must not be taken together.