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The Approach to Depression Through History
Depression used to mean something very different from what it means today. The classic term in psychiatry for patience with severe or chronic depressions was melancholia. These were the most profound and severely depressed individuals. Now we have a diagnostic system that really combines very mild, transient and perhaps exogenous depression into one type of illness. i advocate for the re inclusion of melancholia as a diagnostic concept. I think it would help clarify things and really differentiate those with severe, profound depressions from those with milder sort of depressions that seem more related to life circumstance.