How to Recognize the Symptoms of Depression

Gender differences in depression
Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression. However, men more often commit suicide as a result of this debilitating condition. And debilitating it is: Numbers from the National Institute of Mental Health indicate depression is the leading cause of disability in Americans between the ages of 15 and 44.

Depression begets more depression
Like an open wound or a broken bone, depression rarely heals itself.

Half of all people who have had one episode of depression and are not taking antidepressants will have another, according to The Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide. A second episode makes the risk of a third one even higher. A person who has had three episodes and is still not taking medication has a 90% risk of having a fourth.

And it's like falling downhill. Successive episodes tend to get more severe and occur more frequently. People with depression have an average of four to eight episodes in a lifetime.

"If you think you may be depressed, get an evaluation," says Walter Brown, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. "If you had bad headaches or stomach problems, you'd see a doctor without hesitation. The same principle applies if you think you are depressed."