major depression

noun

: a serious mood disorder involving one or more episodes of intense psychological depression or loss of interest or pleasure that lasts two or more weeks and is accompanied by irritability, fatigue, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, weight gain or loss, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, and sometimes suicidal tendencies : clinical depression, major depressive disorder

Episodes of major depression usually last several months and may recur throughout a lifetime.

—The Harvard Mental Health Letter

Psychiatrists have found that among distinguished artists, the rates of manic depression and major depression are 10 to 30 times as prevalent as in the population at large.

—Natalie Angier

Examples of major depression in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Symptoms may be similar to that of mild major depression, where a person has few signs of depression. —Karen Pallarito, Health, 12 June 2024

If safety, psychosis, or major depression are urgent concerns, then consider using psychoactive medications after consulting a physician. —Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 7 June 2024

There’s maybe no poet more famously tortured than Plath, who suffered from major depression for most of her life until her death by suicide in 1963 — and whose writing bore some notable similarities to Swift’s. —Rachel Simon, Vulture, 19 Apr. 2024

Recent figures from an impressive Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll indicate that only 20 percent of the 2.6 million service members who have served in this century’s wars suffer from some form of posttraumatic stress and major depression. —Nancy Sherman, Foreign Affairs, 4 Apr. 2014

Word History

First Known Use

1977, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

major depression

noun

: a serious mood disorder involving one or more episodes of intense psychological depression or loss of interest or pleasure that lasts two or more weeks and is accompanied by irritability, fatigue, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, weight gain or loss, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, and sometimes suicidal tendencies : clinical depression, major depressive disorder