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Defining melancholia: the primacy of psychomotor disturbance
Author(s) -
Parker G.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2007.00959.x
Subject(s) - melancholia , psychology , psychomotor learning , categorical variable , disturbance (geology) , psychomotor retardation , cognitive psychology , antidepressant , psychotherapist , clinical psychology , psychiatry , cognition , medicine , computer science , anxiety , alternative medicine , pathology , machine learning , biology , paleontology
Objective: To argue that melancholia is a categorically distinct depressive condition, able to be differentiated from other depressive conditions by a neuropathological marker [observable psychomotor disturbance (PMD)] and having a differential response to various antidepressant treatments. Method: The above statements are addressed by review of a wide body of research, which identified observable PMD as the cardinal marker of melancholia and developed the CORE measure as a strategy for assessing PMD and its severity. Properties of the CORE measure, including reliability, validity and treatment prediction, are overviewed. Results: A case is made for defining melancholia and a strategy for establishing its probability. Conclusion: Melancholia is positioned as a categorical entity capable of being circumscribed by its cardinal feature of PMD.