A depression that feels distinctly different from grief, not just longer or more severe. Depression that s worse in the morning. Slowness and sluggishness or fidgetiness and feeling speeded up. Significant weight loss or loss of appetite. Excessive or inappropriate guilt.
Melancholic depressions are very common in people who have been hospitalized.
Over a lifetime, the same person can have depressive episodes with and without melancholia. As you d expect from the name, patients with atypical depressions have symptoms that are different from those experienced by others with depression. Although their depressions are just as deep as those of other people s, they brighten up when something good happens. This can lead other people to misinterpret what s going on. Significant increase in weight or appetite.