How is depression diagnosed?

Written by Pang Ji Cheng
Psychiatry and Psychology
Updated on June 14, 2025
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The diagnosis of depression in clinical practice includes understanding the patient's clinical manifestations, conducting in-depth psychiatric examinations, scale measurements, and excluding auxiliary examinations related to depression. Clinically, it is important to fully understand the occurrence, development, progression, and treatment process of depression-related manifestations in patients. Additionally, psychiatric examinations focus on detailed assessments of the patients’ sensations, perceptions, consciousness, thinking, emotions, attention, memory, intelligence, and self-control, to further understand their overall psychological state. Scale measurements often involve self-assessment scales, depressive symptom self-rating scales or external assessment scales for comprehensive evaluation. Exclusion diagnostics primarily involve corresponding tests, such as thyroid examinations, to rule out physical diseases that may cause symptoms related to depression. After compiling all the information mentioned above, a definitive diagnosis of depression can be made.

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Can postpartum depression breastfeed?

When postpartum depression occurs, it is possible to continue breastfeeding. If the depression is mild and no medication is taken, continuing breastfeeding will not affect the baby's growth and development. However, depression often leads to low spirits, frequent crying, and a reluctance to care for the child, which can affect milk secretion and lead to a reduction in milk supply that may not meet the baby's growth needs. In such cases, it may be necessary to add supplementary food or formula. If postpartum depression is severe and involves medication, these medications may enter the baby's body through the breast milk, which can affect the baby's health. Therefore, if postpartum depression occurs and medication is taken, breastfeeding should be stopped. (Note: The answer is for reference only. Medication should be administered under the guidance of a professional physician, and blind medication should be avoided.)

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How to manage mild depression

Mild depression is primarily treated clinically through self-adjustment, psychotherapy, or physical therapy. Self-adjustment often involves exercise, which can stimulate the brain to release endorphins, playing an anti-depressive role. Additionally, exercise is an effective relaxation training that can divert attention and stimulate feelings of control and pleasure. Furthermore, psychotherapy is also used in clinical settings, particularly cognitive behavioral therapy, which is crucial in helping patients identify thoughts, correct irrational cognitive patterns, and rebuild their cognitive systems. Effective training in social and other activities is also necessary to enhance social or occupational functioning. In terms of physical therapy, repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) is the main treatment method.

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Is depression contagious?

Depression is not contagious, but there is a certain genetic predisposition to it. Clinically, depression is closely related to genetic, environmental, physiological, and psychological factors. For families with a history of depression, their offspring are 4-8 times more likely to suffer from depression than the general population. However, this does not mean depression is a hereditary disease. Interaction with individuals suffering from depression may influence others negatively, including feelings of sadness, self-blame, or despair. Nevertheless, depression cannot be transmitted to others. Through systematic and standardized treatment, particularly with the use of new antidepressant medications, depression can be effectively managed.

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Can people with depression occasionally feel happy?

Patients with depression may occasionally feel happy, but they predominantly experience low mood throughout most of their days. Patients perceive a significant and persistent sense of low spirits, pessimism, and despair. Their mood is such that they cannot feel joy, and they often seem easy to recognize by their facial expressions – furrowed brows, frowning, and looking deeply worried. Thus, these patients feel downhearted; nothing seems to interest them, they feel as if something heavy is pressing on their heart, devoid of pleasure, often crying, pessimistic, despairing, feeling as if each day lasts a year, and life not worth living. Sometimes, patients may feel that life is meaningless, hence might engage in self-harming or suicidal behaviors, blame themselves harshly, and have trouble concentrating. However, it's not that patients never experience happiness; it's just that they are in a depressed mood most of the time each day, with only occasional moments of happiness, which are relatively rare.

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What medication is used for depression?

The medications commonly used for depression in clinical settings are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, primarily used to increase serotonin levels in the patient's brain to improve depressive symptoms. Representative drugs in clinical use include paroxetine, sertraline, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, and escitalopram. There are also medications that inhibit the reuptake of both serotonin and norepinephrine, such as venlafaxine and duloxetine. Additionally, there's a type of antidepressant that acts on norepinephrine and is specifically serotonergic, with mirtazapine being the main drug. These medications are considered modern antidepressants and have a relatively significant clinical efficacy. Of course, there are also traditional tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants, which are not recommended as first-line treatments in clinical settings due to their more adverse reactions. (Please follow a doctor's guidance regarding the use of specific medications.)