major depressive disorder

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 depression

About 18 million Americans are diagnosed with a major depressive disorder each year.

—David Schwab

The most serious form of depression is major depressive disorder, characterized by depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, changes in appetite, increased or decreased sleep, increased or decreased motor activity, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, difficulty concentrating and, for some people, recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

—Sandi Lloyd

—abbreviation MDD

Examples of major depressive disorder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This week, the FDA cleared the first prescription digital treatment for major depressive disorder. —Alexandra Banner, CNN, 3 Apr. 2024

The Food and Drug Administration has cleared Otsuka Pharmaceutical’s digital treatment for major depressive disorder, offering a new option for millions of people who struggle with the stubborn mental health condition. —Mario Aguilar, STAT, 1 Apr. 2024

Studies have found that some 50% to 70% of patients with major depressive disorder see their symptoms improve after a course of ECT. —Elizabeth Landau, Quanta Magazine, 18 Mar. 2024

Twenty-three people in the study had PTSD, half met the criteria for having a major depressive disorder and 14 had an anxiety disorder. —Eduardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, 5 Jan. 2024

In 2019, the Food and Drug Administration bestowed breakthrough status—essentially, speeding up the drug development and review process—on psilocybin therapy for major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. —Daliah Singer, Smithsonian Magazine, 17 Nov. 2023

The doctors were given one of two case studies: the first, about a patient with borderline personality disorder; the other, about a patient with major depressive disorder. —Katie Engelhart, New York Times, 3 Jan. 2024

The device will target the prefrontal cortex, which is impaired in patients with major depressive disorder. —Emily Mullin, WIRED, 23 Dec. 2023

She was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and acute anxiety disorder. —Charles Bethea, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1977, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

major depressive disorder

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 depression

The diagnosis of both major depressive disorder and subsyndromal symptoms is complicated by difficulties that elderly patients may have in recognizing or describing depressive symptoms.

—Lawrence M. Martin et al., The John Hopkins White Papers

—abbreviation MDD