rotic depression since it was implicit that the depressive symptomatology was an aspect of ones personality structure. Some with dysthmic disorder experience something called double depression, which is when one goes through one or more episodes of major depression on top of their ongoing dysthmic disorder. EPIDEMIOLOGY OF DEPRESSIONEpidemiology of depression is basically one susceptibility to depression based on their sex, age, etc. Under the category of sex, there is a drastically higher rate of depression in women than in men. In diagnosed and treated cases there is a ratio of 2:1 in nonbipolar depressives, the female-male ratio for bipolar depressives however is 1.2:1. Weissman and Klerman reached the following conclusions: First, the male-female difference in rates of depression is real and not merely an artifact of corresponding sex differences in rate of help-seeking behavior, since women preponderate not only in studies of treated cases of depression but also in community surveys in which most of the "cases" have not sought help. Second, women do not appear to experience more stressful life events or consider specific life events to be more stressful than men, however, at similar levels of stress, women report significantly greater intensities of symptoms. One explanation of this finding is that women may be more willing than men to admit to symptoms or, not inconsistently, men may express their symptoms in different ways-through alcohol abuse or "acting out", for example. Third, there is some evidence to suggest that the postpartum and the premenstrual periods, with their associated biological and psychological changes, represent periods of increased risk of depression among women. However, the extent of the risk imparted by endocrine factors has yet to be determined. Latest community surveys show that there is a higher occurrence of depressive indications in young adults rather than in older adults, younger adults...
