Atypical Depression

Definition: Any type of depression can make you feel sad and keep you from enjoying life. However, atypical depression — also called depression with atypical features — means that your depressed mood can brighten in response to positive events. Other key symptoms include increased appetite, sleeping too much, feeling that your arms or legs are heavy, and feeling rejected.

Symptoms: Depression that temporarily lifts in response to good news or positive events, Increased appetite that can cause weight gain, Increased desire to sleep, usually more than 10 hours a day, Heavy, leaden feeling in your arms or legs that lasts an hour or more in a day — a feeling that is different from fatigue, Sensitivity to rejection or criticism, which affects your relationships, social life or job.

Statistics: Using a score of 8 as a cut-off point for depression, the odds ratio for depression among men versus women was 1.29 [P<.0001; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.16-1.43]. This contrasted with the results from the SF-12, in which the women had markedly and significantly poorer scores than men did. The women also reported a higher use of medicine for depression. Two of the seven HADS-D questions, related to interest in personal appearance and the ability to enjoy television, radio, and books, explained 70% of the higher depression scores among men.