Major depressive disorder with atypical features

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with Atypicai Features. The anhedonia of MDD is often manifested by social withdrawal. In contrast to social anxiety disorder, the social withdrawal of MDD is desired by the patient, at least during the major depressive episode, and does not persist when the episode remits. Atypical depression is characterized by another symptom reminiscent of social anxiety disorder—a longstanding pattern of sensitivity to interpersonal rejection. The interpersonal sensitivity associated with atypical depression is often characterized by stormy relationships and overly emotional responses to perceived slights. Such social lability is seldom observed in patients with social anxiety disorder. 

In clinical studies, major depressive disorder has had four specifiers, including melancholic feature, atypical feature, catatonic feature, and postpartum onset. In the future, we should investigate the distributions of the four specifiers of depression among patients with physical illness and discuss which biological markers could link the depressive disorder and the physical illness. 

Although there are papers that discuss the relationships between cholesterol, lipid profiles, and major depression [34-39], there are few data that discuss the association between lipid profiles and depressive disorders with different phenotypes. Huang and Chen investigated the correlation between serum lipid, lipoprotein concentration, and major depressive disorder in patients evaluated for general health screening [41]. They found that analysis of covariance after age adjustment revealed significant differences in patients with melancholic feature and patients with atypical feature in serum concentrations of TG and VLDL in men and HDL in women [41]. However, there are still no reports that discuss the relationships between lipid profiles and major depression with postpartum onset or catatonic feature. In the future, large sample numbers will be needed to clarify the clinical differences in this field. 

Major depressive disorder (MDD) with atypical features... 

Trivedi MH, Thase ME, Fava M, Nelson CJ, Yang H, Qi Y, Tran QV, Pikalov A, Carlson BX, Marcus RN, Berman RM. Adjunctive aripiprazole in major depressive disorder analysis of efficacy and safety in patients with anxious and atypical features. J Clin Psychiatry 2008 69(12) 1928-36. 

Several subtypes of depression require specific treatment strategies that go beyond a simple course of conventional antidepressant therapy (these subtypes include bipolar depression, major depression with psychotic features, seasonal depression, atypical depression, comorbid anxiety disorder, comorbid substance abuse, double depression [major depression... 

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