Table 1.

Symptoms and Diagnostic Criteria for Major Depressive Episode

Symptoms

  1. Depressed mood most of the day.

  2. Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities, most of the day.

  3. Marked decrease or increase in appetite, resulting in significant unintentional weight loss or weight gain (ie, >5% body weight in 1 month).

  4. Insomnia or hypersomnia .

  5. Psychomotor agitation or retardation .

  6. Fatigue or loss of energy.

  7. Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt.

  8. Decreased ability to think or concentrate.

  9. Recurrent thoughts of death, or recurrent suicidal thoughts (with or without a plan).

Diagnostic Criteria

  • Five or more of the symptoms listed above, representing a change in baseline, present nearly every day for the same 2-week period, and producing clinically significant distress or change in functioning

  • Must include symptom 1 or 2.

  • Symptoms do not meet criteria for a mixed episode, and they are not due to drugs, another medical condition, or bereavement (unless prolonged; i.e., >2 months)

  • Adapted from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.