Depression Articles

There are two different types of mood disorders: depressive disorders (unipolar depressions) and bipolar disorders. There are also subcategories of these mood disorders. Keep reading for more information on these different types of depression and mood disorders.

The word mood refers to a person’s state of mind or emotion. Mood Disorders is one of the categories of mental disorders. A person with a mood disorder has a state of mind or emotional repertoire that does not respond in the way most people’s do to the common highs and lows of life. Together with other types of disorders - such as anxiety disorders, personality disorders, adjustment disorders, and others - it is used to classify the types of mental health issues people may have. This article gives an overview of mood disorders, using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) codes as a guide.

Note that these descriptions are general overviews, do not contain every detail about the conditions mentioned, and are not diagnostic. For more information, please consult a physician or mental health professional.

Different Types of Mood Disorder

There are two main groups of mood disorders: depressive disorders (sometimes called unipolar depressions), in which people’s moods or emotional states are skewed in one direction only: that of sorrow, unhappiness, and hopelessness; and bipolar disorders in which people’s moods or emotional states hit both ends of the gamut, very depressed on the one hand and manic on the other.

As you can see in the chart below, each of these two categories  has three subcategories. Depressive disorders include 1) dysthymic disorder or dysthymia, which refers to ongoing or chronic depression without major depression; 2) major depressive disorder, also called “clinical depression,” refers to a single episode or a repeated phenomena of  depression so severe that it interferes in a significant way with some area of life (some of the most often talked about types of mood disorders, like Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD and postpartum depression are forms of major depressive disorder); and 3) depressive disorder not otherwise specified (NOS), to cover other types of depression that may not fit the other categories.

Bipolar disorders include 1) bipolar disorders of eight different types; 2) cyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia, which is a chronic fluctuation of mood with both hypomanic and depressive symptoms repeating; and 3) other mood disorders that either are unspecified or are the result of another medical condition.

Note that there are further subcategories of a number of mood disorders that classify them by whether they are:

• recurrent or a single episode
• ongoing or in full or partial remission
• mild, moderate, or severe in intensity
• having or not having psychotic features
• having unspecified features
• the most recent type of episode (for bipolar disorders only)

Chart of Mood disorders

I. Depressive disorders

1. Dysthymic disorder
2. Major depressive disorder or Clinical Depression

                   A. Major depressive disorder, recurrent (In full remission; in partial remission; mild, moderate; severe without psychotic features; severe with psychotic features; unspecified)

                   B. Major depressive disorder, single episode (In full remission; in partial remission; mild, moderate; severe without psychotic features; severe with psychotic features; unspecified)

      3. Depressive disorder NOS

II. Bipolar disorders

                        1. Bipolar disorders

A. Bipolar disorder NOS

B. Bipolar I disorder, most recent episode depressed (In full remission; in partial remission; mild, moderate; severe without psychotic features; severe with psychotic features; unspecified)

C. Bipolar I disorder, most recent episode hypomanic

D. Bipolar I disorder, most recent episode manic (In full remission; in partial remission; mild, moderate; severe without psychotic features; severe with psychotic features; unspecified)

E. Bipolar I disorder, most recent episode mixed (In full remission; in partial remission; mild, moderate; severe without psychotic features; severe with psychotic features; unspecified)

F. Bipolar I disorder, most recent episode unspecified

G. Bipolar I disorder, single manic episode (In full remission; in partial remission; mild, moderate; severe without psychotic features; severe with psychotic features; unspecified)

H. Bipolar II disorder

                        2. Cyclothymic disorder

                        3. Mood disorder (other)

A. Mood disorder due to... [a medical condition]

B. Mood disorder NOS