An episode of major depression is defined as a period lasting at least 2 weeks. List at least 5 symptoms required for the episode to occur. Be specific.

The five most frequent signs of major depressive illness include Violence, where the patient exhibits frequent irritability—even over trivial things—angry bouts, worry, restlessness, and agitation. Excessive emotions make the patients isolate themselves because they feel unbearably depressed, crying, hopeless, and empty. Difficulties with appetite where the patient has a decreased appetite and loses excessive amounts of weight, or they may have an enhanced appetite and acquire excessive amounts of weight, nightmares, and other sleep disorders such as insomnia—lastly, Anhedonia and apathy (Bains & Abdijadid, 2022). Apathy refers to the absence of feelings, interest, emotions, or care for the things around the patient. Anhedonia refers to the sensation of lack of interest in pastimes the patient once enjoyed, such as intercourse, leisure, and hobbies.

List 3 classes of drugs, with a corresponding example for each class, that precipitate insomnia. Be specific.

  Drug classes that cause insomnia include Benzodiazepines, for example, lorazepam, a class of benzodiazepines with a shorter half-life that controls and relieves insomnia or difficulties falling asleep due to stress or worry. The Dual orexin receptor antagonists, such as Suvorexant, block or antagonize the orexin receptor (Stern et al., 2015). Melatonin receptor agonists, such as Ramelteon, a melatonin receptor agonist that help patients with sleep-onset sleeplessness and those at greater risk of falling sleep better.

References

Bains, N., & Abdijadid, S. (2022). Major depressive disorder. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Stern, T. A., Fava, M., Wilens, T. E., & Rosenbaum, J. F. (2015). Massachusetts general hospital psychopharmacology and neurotherapeutics. Elsevier Health Sciences.