Article: Mood disorder

A mood disorder is a condition whereby the prevailing emotional mood is distorted or inappropriate to the circumstances.

The two major types of mood disorders are depression (or unipolar depression) and bipolar disorder.

• Depression (or unipolar depression), including subtypes:
  • Major Depression
  • Major Depression (Recurrent)
  • Major Depression with psychotic symptoms (psychotic depression)
  • Dysthymia
  • Postpartum depression

• Bipolar disorder, a mood disorder described by alternating periods of mania and depression (and in some cases rapid cycling, mixed states, and psychotic symptoms). Subtypes include:
  • Bipolar I
  • Bipolar II
  • Cyclothymia

Schizoaffective disorder is a vaguely-defined term (probably at the psychotic end of the bipolar spectrum) that describes patients that show symptoms of both schizophrenia and one of the mood disorders.

Basic and clinical psychiatric research is increasingly showing that unipolar and bipolar mood disorders are continuous entities within the complete mood spectrum. This spectrum runs continuously from unipolar depression to schizo-bipolar disorder with anxiety disorders running across the gamut. However, many professionals contest this claim. Some maintain that bipolar disorder, for example, may actually be biochemically closer to schizophrenia than (unipolar) depression.

There are also forms of mood disorder that are specific to women, related to physiological events such as pregnancy, giving birth or the menopause - these include Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and Postpartum Psychosis.

The professionaly-accepted definitions of all of the mood disorders can be found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).

See also

• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
• Anxiety disorder
• Personality disorder
• Mood (affective) disorders
• Affective spectrum