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Introduction to mood disorders 

Introduction to mood disorders
Chapter:
Introduction to mood disorders
Author(s):

John R. Geddes

DOI:
10.1093/med/9780199696758.003.0083
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date: 25 November 2020

The concept of mood is difficult to define. In psychiatry, it has come to mean a pervasive emotional tone varying along an axis from happiness to sadness—and perhaps anxiety. The boundaries between normal and abnormal mood are equally difficult to define. Nonetheless, there is usually no doubt about the most extreme manifestations of low mood, depression, or elevated mood, mania. This chapter begins by discussing the early history and subsequent development of modern psychiatric nosology. It then covers the distinction between unipolar and bipolar disorders, modern diagnostic systems and the birth of diagnostic criteria, subgroups of unipolar and bipolar disorder, and likely future developments in the classification of mood disorders.

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