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Mood disorder is the term designating a group of diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classification system where a disturbance in the person's mood is hypothesized to be the main underlying feature. The classification is known as mood disorders in ICD 10. English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder. The term was...  MORE

Mood disorder is the term designating a group of diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders classification system where a disturbance in the person's mood is hypothesized to be the main underlying feature. The classification is known as mood disorders in ICD 10. English psychiatrist Henry Maudsley proposed an overarching category of affective disorder. The term was then replaced by mood disorder, as the latter term refers to the underlying or longitudinal emotional state, whereas the former refers to the external expression observed by others. Mood disorders affects different parts of the brain as it controls both the physiologic and the behavioral coping responses to daily events as well as major stressors, and the nervous system is itself a target of the mediators of those responses through circulating hormones. The amygdala and hippocampus interpret what is stressful and regulate appropriate responses. The amygdala becomes hyperactive in posttraumatic stress disorder Two groups of mood disorders are broadly recognized; the division is based on whether a manic or hypomanic episode has ever been present. Thus, there are depressive disorders, of which the best-known and most researched is major depressive disorder commonly called clinical depression or major depression, and bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression and characterized by intermittent episodes of mania or hypomania, usually interlaced with depressive episodes. However, there are also psychiatric syndromes featuring less severe depression known as dysthymic disorder and cyclothymic disorder. Mood disorders may also be substance-induced or occur in response to a medical condition. LESS