Mood Disorder

Dreaming takes the sting out of painful memories: study

They say time heals all wounds, and new research from the University of California, Berkeley, indicates that time spent in dream sleep can help.

Medical research created Nov 23, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Deep brain stimulation shows promising results for unipolar and bipolar depression

A new study shows that deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a safe and effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression in patients with either unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar ll disorder (BP). The ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jan 02, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 21 | with audio podcast

Depression could be evolutionary byproduct of immune system

Depression is common enough – afflicting one in ten adults in the United States – that it seems the possibility of depression must be "hard-wired" into our brains. This has led biologists to propose several theories ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Mar 01, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study shows people view women as a collection of body parts

(Medical Xpress) -- A small group of researchers has found that true to stereotype, people really do tend to look at women as a collection of body parts, rather than as a whole person. What’s perhaps ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jul 25, 2012 | popularity 2.6 / 5 (16) | comments 16 | with audio podcast report

Childhood trauma leaves mark on DNA of some victims

Abused children are at high risk of anxiety and mood disorders, as traumatic experience induces lasting changes to their gene regulation. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have ...

Neuroscience created Dec 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Control of fear in the brain decoded

When healthy people are faced with threatening situations, they react with a suitable behavioural response and do not descend into a state of either panic or indifference, as is the case, for example, with ...

Neuroscience created Sep 06, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Survey suggests family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests

A hallmark of the individual is the cultivation of personal interests, but for some people, their intellectual pursuits might actually be genetically predetermined. Survey results published by Princeton University researchers ...

Autism spectrum disorders created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (9) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Potential target for treating schizophrenia found

(Medical Xpress) -- Scientists at the University of Glasgow have identified a potential target for the treatment of schizophrenia.

Medical research created May 11, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Women infected with Toxoplasma gondii have increased risk of attempting suicide: study

Women infected with the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite, which is spread through contact with cat feces or eating undercooked meat or unwashed vegetables, are at increased risk of attempting suicide, according to ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jul 02, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Borderline personality disorder: The "perfect storm" of emotion dysregulation

Originally, the label "borderline personality disorder" was applied to patients who were thought to represent a middle ground between patients with neurotic and psychotic disorders. Increasingly, though, ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created Jan 15, 2013 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Manipulating serotonin can promote healthy repair in chronic liver disease

(Medical Xpress) -- Publishing in the leading medical journal Nature Medicine, a team led by Newcastle University academics have identified serotonin receptors which can be targeted with drugs to enhance the natural healin ...

Medical research created Nov 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Creativity and bipolar disorder are linked, but not by some mad genius

(Medical Xpress) -- Does some fine madness yield great artists, writers and scientists? The evidence is growing for a significant link between bipolar disorder and creative temperament and achievement.

Psychology & Psychiatry created Aug 21, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 1

More sophisticated wiring, not just bigger brain, helped humans evolve beyond chimps

Human and chimp brains look anatomically similar because both evolved from the same ancestor millions of years ago. But where does the chimp brain end and the human brain begin?

Neuroscience created Aug 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Mouse research links adolescent stress and severe adult mental illness

Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence—a critical time for brain development—and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause ...

Neuroscience created Jan 17, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Bipolar disorder: Mind-body connection suggests new directions for treatment, research

A new study by motor control and psychology researchers at Indiana University suggests that postural control problems may be a core feature of bipolar disorder, not just a random symptom, and can provide insights both into ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 24, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 3 | with audio podcast


Mood disorder is the term designating a group of diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV TR) classification system where a disturbance in the person's mood is hypothesized to be the main underlying feature. The classification is known as mood (affective) disorders in ICD 10.

English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder. The term was then replaced by mood disorder, as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others.

Two groups of mood disorders are broadly recognized; the division is based on whether the person has ever had a manic or hypomanic episode. Thus, there are depressive disorders, of which the best-known and most researched is major depressive disorder (MDD) commonly called clinical depression or major depression, and bipolar disorder (BD), formerly known as manic depression and characterized by intermittent episodes of mania or hypomania, usually interlaced with depressive episodes.

This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

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