major depressive episode

Other forms: major depressive episodes

Definitions of major depressive episode

1. noun

   (psychiatry) a state of depression with all the classic symptoms (anhedonia and lethargy and sleep disturbance and despondency and morbid thoughts and feelings of worthlessness and sometimes attempted suicide) but with no known organic dysfunction
   types:

   involutional depression

   a major depressive episode associated with the climacteric

   unipolar depression

   a major depressive episode that occurs without the manic phase that occurs in the classic form of bipolar disorder

   type of:

   clinical depression, depression, depressive disorder

   a state of depression and anhedonia so severe as to require clinical intervention