Major depressive disorder precursors, predictors and coping mechanism

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Medicine - Public Health, grade: A, The University of Chicago, language: English, abstract: Major Depressive Disorders is one of the first disorders to be recognized among humanity. A number of psychologists and psychiatrists have come up with theories and myths that explain the origin of MDD. Ancient Egyptians identified the brain to be the body organ that was in charge of human consciousness (James Herbert, 2009). They believed that brain disorders could be caused by both supernatural factors and also other factors that were within human control. The Old Testament is also one of the earliest evidence of MDD. Examined as literary description of human behavior and society, MDD is described by King David and other author. It is defined as another form of psychological distress. In the earlier days, symptoms associated with MDD as per today’s standards include insomnia, fatigue, sadness and fearfulness. It is quite evident that even in the pre-classical period people had acknowledged conditions similar to MDD (James Herbert, 2009). However, the earliest written record of a medical diagnostic condition similar to MDD was in the classical era. It is the melancholia described by the Hippocrates. Melancholia is a sub set of Major Depressive Disorder but in earlier cases the word melancholia was used in place of MDD. In other parts of the world, melancholia is still used to mean MDD in today’s diagnostics (Seth Disner, 2011).