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described in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. They are:
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Poor appetite and significant weight loss, or increased appetite and significant weight gain.
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Insomnia or increased sleep.
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Agitation or retardation of movement and thought.
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Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities or decrease in sexual drive.
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Fatigue and loss of energy.
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Feelings of worthlessness, self-reproach or excessive or inappropriate guilt.
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Diminished ability to think or concentrate; indecisiveness.
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Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide; or suicide attempts.
Not all of these characteristics occur in each individual who becomes depressed. For purposes of psychiatric treatment, a person is considered to have experienced a major depressive episode if he or she exhibits a loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all usual activities and shows at least four of the above symptoms nearly every day for a period of at least two weeks. The term depression is often modified by words that imply either some specific factor or some chemical mechanism is the cause of the state.
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Depressions that are reactions to some loss of or separation from a valued person or object are called reactive (or exogenous) depressions.
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This contrasts with the usually more severe depressions without apparent cause, called endogenous depressions, or those accompanied by delusions.
Specific remedies for depression
St. John's wort (hypericum) has a long tradition of use in Europe, and while it sometimes gets remarkable results

 
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