Major Depressive Disorder: Present State of Clinical Care, Assessing Treatment Challenges

September 6, 2008 Boston, MA

Date:

September 6, 2008 - September 6, 2008

Location:

MGH Simches Research Building

Starr Center, 2nd Floor

Massachusetts General Hospital

Cost:

$40

Includes registration to follow-up Casecasts on September 18th & 24th

Description

Mood disorders are common and disabling. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly prevalent affecting approximately 14.8 million American adults or about 7% of the general population age 18 and above in any given year. MDD is the leading worldwide cause of disability. Patients with MDD often are under treated or inadequately treated, resulting in continued distress and disability.

Depression has been traditionally viewed as a disorder that primarily affects mood and cognition, with only limited somatic correlates such as fatigue and disturbance of sleep and appetite. Recent studies suggest that somatic symptoms are much more central to depressive disorders than initially thought. Somatic presentations of depression are very common in primary care settings and in depressed patients with general medical conditions, and practitioners must be aware that multiple somatic complaints may signal unipolar or bipolar depression.

This live symposium kicks off a complete Psychiatry Academy program on depression: