ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1992
Definition | Diagnostic Guidelines | DCR-10 Criteria
No definition available The disorder is characterized by repeated episodes of depression as specified in depressive episode (mild, moderate, or severe), without any history of independent episodes of mood elevation and overactivity that fulfill the criteria of mania. However, the category should still be used if there is evidence of brief episodes of mild mood elevation and overactivity which fulfill the criteria of hypomania immediately after a depressive episode (sometimes apparently precipitated by treatment of a depression). The age of onset and the severity, duration, and frequency of the episodes of depression are all highly variable. In general, the first episode occurs later than in bipolar disorder, with a mean age of onset in the fifth decade. Individual episodes also last between 3 and 12 months (median duration about 6 months) but recur less frequently. Recovery is usually complete between episodes, but a minority of patients may develop a persistent depression, mainly in old age (for which this category should still be used). Individual episodes of any severity are often precipitated by stressful life events; in many cultures, both individual episodes and persistent depression are twice as common in women as in men.The risk that a patient with recurrent depressive disorder will have an episode of mania never disappears completely, however many depressive episodes he or she has experienced. If a manic episode does occur, the diagnosis should change to bipolar affective disorder.
Recurrent depressive episode may be subdivided, as below, by specifying first the type of the current episode and then (if sufficient information is available) the type that predominates in all the episodes.
Includes:
* recurrent episodes of depressive reaction, psychogenic depression, reactive
depression, seasonal affective disorder
* recurrent episodes of endogenous depression, major depression, manic depressive
psychosis (depressed type), psychogenic or reactive depressive psychosis, psychotic
depression, vital depression
Excludes:
* recurrent brief depressive episodes
ICD-10 copyright © 1992 by World Health Organization.