Major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder are both forms of clinical depression that warrant treatment, but they differ in ways that affect both how patients experience them and how a depression psychologist in Boca Raton approaches their treatment. Major depression involves discrete episodes of significant depressive symptoms, including persistently depressed mood or loss of interest, combined with several additional symptoms such as sleep changes, appetite changes, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of worthlessness. These episodes have a defined onset and represent a change from prior functioning. Between episodes, patients may return to their baseline level of functioning, though recurrence is common and the risk of subsequent episodes increases with each prior one.
Persistent depressive disorder, formerly called dysthymia, involves a more chronic pattern of depressive symptoms that are typically less severe than a major depressive episode but present for two years or more. Because the onset is gradual and the symptoms have been present for so long, many patients with persistent depressive disorder have never identified what they experience as depression, attributing it instead to their personality or their circumstances. Dr. Steinbok's assessment at his Boca Raton practice includes attention to this possibility, because patients who have been depressed for most of their adult life and have not recognized it as a treatable condition are among those who benefit most from the kind of depth-oriented clinical engagement that psychodynamic and psychoanalytic treatment can offer.
