Depression criteria

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Morten from Denmark wrote as reproduced.I am writing from India. I differ. I explain. Morten has talked of the ICD.Well, I have been through that allopathicpsychiatry system having worked for 30 years as Assoc. Prof. and Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist in psychiatry deptts of different countries. My additional qualification as regards depression is thatI have treated successfully three cases of psychotic depression without psychiatric drugs. One of them doesn't accept my advice but I trick him into thetreatment whereby he feels he is doing thetreatment himself. I have however not achieved full success in this third case.In two other cases I have achieved fullsuccess. One of them was an allopathic physician. The other two are my own familymembers. To cut the story short, I have nowgrown dis-illusioned by the psychiatricclassification systems. Please please throwthem in the garbage. The best system ofclassification that WORKS is as follows:Neurotic Vs Psychotic depression. Psychological interventions for the first, other interventions for the second. Dividethe second (psychotic depression) into threenamely, those depressions that involvetryptophan-serotonin deficiency Vs thosethat involve phenylalanine-tyrosine-dopamindeficiency Vs the depression phase of bipolar.Treatments (mainly nutritional and otherse.g., celiac treatment, allergies, detoxissues)for all these are different from each other against the psychiatric drugtreatments that follow the same "flow chart"of drugs for all depressions even if forname sake ISD or DSM is used. Pleasenote that ISD and DSM are decorations orused only for research, but are not used inday-to-day clinical practice in the ward.Regards.Ratan.--------- There is a challenge to us all in that - to diagnose define severe, moderate and mild depression. Trials of various forms of medication and psychotherapy generally suffer from that limitation. The ICD-10 depression criteria, for instance, do not include psychomotor depression, and the manual suggests as a clue that symptom counts can be used (for instance, 2 of 3 core criteria and 4 of 6 additional criteria for a moderate depression). But I bet most of the patients that Jim talk about who won't eat easily satisfy all criteria, and that a bunch of depressed patients who are able to both eat and get out of bed (and could participate in a caveman-program) satisfy all 10 criteria.Maybe psychomotor agitation or retardation is the key - the research I have come across has not been very conclusive.Regards,Morten-------------------

Ratan SinghM.A. (Psychol), Postgraduate Diploma in Medical & Social Psychology, Ph.D.Certified Behavior Therapist (from late Prof. J. Wolpe's Unit)Hypnotist, Biofeedback and Meditation Therapist.Family and Marital and Sex Therapist.Consultant in Jaipur Hospital, India.psych_58, www.jaipurmart.com/trade/meditationandhealth,meditationandcancer-