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A severe psychiatric illness, Melancholia, has long been recognized. It was a feature of 19th Century psychopathology. In the 20th Century, it was subsumed under the sobriquet of "Depression" and lost. In the past 30 years, interest has been rekindled and the detailed characteristics of the illness have been described, as have the associated systemic dysfunctions of the neuroendocrine system. More important, effective treatments have been developed.
Scidata ( talk) 21:36, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
Dürer's woodcut is actually entitled Melencholia and is usually referred to by that spelling.
S.
It is? if so please update this page & the Durer page
"The present classification of psychiatric disorders is ill-defined, offering poor guidelines for the treatment of the ambulatory and the severe mentally ill." I think that's a little biased, and has no proof. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cannda180 ( talk • contribs) 06:54, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
From the article:
Can anyone say where those quoted passages are from?
Stanley Jackson, Melancholia and Depression: From Hippocratic Times to Modern Times, (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1986) p.30. cites Hippocrates, Works, 1: 263, 4:185. I am not sure how much of this [and in what form] should be included in the article.
I love that image used for this page. Studio1991 06:16, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)
But the writing in the woodcut itself spells it "Melencolia"
wikipedia would be better with a page on "melancholy" as it is used contemporarily. should the modern use go on this page or another page? Id like to know the consensus before i begin work on this page that angers somebody. Spencerk 17:58, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
The object in the woodcut is clearly not a truncated cube, as defined in the linked page. The truncated cube has no pentagonal faces, while the object in the woodcut has many. It is a symbol of melancholy in art, so I think it would be nice to know the correct name for it. Cgray4 13:58, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
On the name thing, I definitely agree with Spencerk it should be listed under the modern name, although it is worth mentioning that it is derived from another word. Going back to old fashioned terms for stuff makes wikipedia go out of sync.
On the article, I think their is something mayor missing in this article as it states: "It is now generally believed that melancholia was the same phenomenon as what is now called clinical depression." That is a bit harsh, everybody feels melancholic at times, it does not qaulify as a 'clinical depression', it is an emotion. Only when stretced to the extreme it can be called a depression. So jay for the backdrop and a little bit of history but where is the detailed description of (normal) melancholy? Oliver Simon 21:03, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
I corrected the Greek word "μελαγχολία" that had been mistakenly written as "μελανχολία". Anyone interested could check the Lidell-Scott dictionary or some texts: Galenus, De locis affectis libri, 8,193,10; Anonymus Medicus, De alimentis, 75,43; Palladius Medicus, Commentarii in Hippocratis librum sextum, 2,21,13.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.75.20.24 ( talk)
It is referred to Ishaq ibn Imran as diagnosing a type of melancholia, but did he use the word 'melancholia', the word 'ḥuzn' as used by Avicenna or some other word? Or was his finding only later classified as melancholia? I unfortunately don't have access to the reference.
The word 'Melancholia' may in ancient times been referring to illnesses with several different labels today, such as clinical lycanthropy and schizophrenia, which this article should of course reflect. But we then need to stay as true as possible to the history and don't make their concepts vaguer than they were. If arabic scholars recognized a mood disorder with symptoms similar to schizophrenia as a separate mood disorder, this in fact has implications for today's debate on the "schizophrenia label". EverGreg ( talk) 11:24, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
Can someone explain how the etymology is simultaneously Greek and Arabic? How is that not a contradiction? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.86.37.47 ( talk) 19:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
I find it unfair to erase the arabic origin of the word from the inroduction, since the latin word itself is no more than a latinization of the word Milakhuliya, which i believe is some neologism that Ishaq coined for that precise condition, since it has no roots in the arabic language. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.250.113.58 ( talk) 17:00, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
Under the heading of Treatment is the reference to ECT, which is given its own sub-heading. However, it is not defined. Further something appears to be left out, as the flow of the paragraph is disjointed. Unless I am completely wrong, ECT is the acronym for Electroconvulsive thearapy. Its usage has neither a clarification of the acronym, nor does it have a reference to the ECT Wikopedia article. This needs editing. - KitchM ( talk) 03:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
At the moment the citations are all messed up as superscripts are being used rather than the proper wikipedia style. This means all the citation numbers are now incorrect. Also the article references ref 1 which is a deadlink. Thanks for taking the time to add citations but please could those who have inserted the references update them to the wikipedia style see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citing_Wikipedia Thanks. 194.83.139.177 ( talk) 15:05, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
This article is a bit weak on the medieval and christian theological discussion of melancholy. We had an unsourced contribution which may have rectified this or may have been a personal opinion. I can't tell but is preserving the contribution below. EverGreg ( talk) 17:11, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
The traditional definition of melancholy which originates from Burton, is that melancholy is a fear and sadness without cause. Saying that melancholy is a condition that is without cause is a cause for concern. Modern psychoanalysis suggests that this 'without cause' suggests that the melancholic individual is mourning a loss or even more specific a lack of something. One form of melancholy is religious melancholy which stems as far back as the Baroque epoch. After the secularization of religious institutions and the distrust in religious figures, people started turning away from God, and turned inwards to a more spiritual and less institutionalized form of finding God. See pantheism for more information. It is believed that melancholy originates from the loss of godly devotion and critical skepticism. On a materialistic viewpoint, the melancholic cannot be at a loss, if they never possessed that over which is mourned, e.g. the conflict between the first and second born son. If the second born son is melancholic, yet despises his first born brother because he is first in line to the throne, or for the family riches, or the receiver of the father's love, we speak of the melancholic second born as being melancholic because of a lack of something. In comparison to the 'loss of something' that one sees with religious melancholy, we cannot speak of a 'loss of something' if that person never had it in the first place. Understanding that the individual ins melancholic due to a 'lack of something' suggest a need for something, e.g. perfection or completion, thus seting the seeds of narcissistic attitudes.
This article has been edited by a user who is known to have misused sources to unduly promote certain views (see WP:Jagged 85 cleanup). Examination of the sources used by this editor often reveals that the sources have been selectively interpreted or blatantly misrepresented, going beyond any reasonable interpretation of the authors' intent.
Please help by viewing the entry for this article shown at the cleanup page, and check the edits to ensure that any claims are valid, and that any references do in fact verify what is claimed. Tobby72 ( talk) 18:42, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
I have removed half of this article as it appears to be a direct copy, c/w footnote 'markers' of the article "Resurrecting melancholia" by M. Fink & M. A. Taylor from
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Volume 115, pages 14–20, February 2007.
This sections appears to reference a psychological state unlike the that of the main article and specially attributes negative psychological causes to reasons specific to a particular religious viewpoint. The description provided more closely matches the religious topic Dukkha — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetrek ( talk • contribs) 03:16, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
The article says "In the 20th century, much of the counterculture of modernism was fueled by comparable alienation and a sense of purposelessness called 'anomie'." To start off with, I don't know that modernism was a 'counter-culture' -- at first, maybe -- but it very quickly became absorbed into the mainstream culture of academic institutions. Regardless, I don't know that there's necessarily a one-to-one relationship between melancholy, and angst; angst is what modernists were concerned with and the cause of anomie, and of ennui. Its more of a condition of anxiety than what was called 'melancholic depression', although to be sure, in humorism, anxiety and depression could both be products of black bile and were both driven out by the same remedies. Yet, much of modernism was also fueled by an opposing sentiment, jouissance, or joie de vivre. Romantics put a lot of positive characteristics behind melancholy, considering it a higher state of awareness. Victorians were influenced by romanticism, and modernists often ended up looking down on the bourgeois culture of Victorian society as being repressed and internalized, joyless and preferring death over life. Angst and jouissance, while entirely different types of states of mind, were both antagonistic values to repressed, bourgeois culture. Expressionism, to some degree, incorporated melancholia, but was soon attacked as 'too bourgeois' itself and as a latent product of romanticism. Brianshapiro ( talk) — Preceding undated comment added 22:14, 20 August 2013
The result of the move request was: No move. This discussion has gotten quite confused in a short order of time, but I think we've achieved consensus on a few key points. First, we have a general agreement that this article is (or should be) about melancholia as one of the four temperaments. As such, there is no agreement that "melancholy" is a better title for it. There is also considerable question and confusion over whether this is really the primary topic of "melancholy" compared to depression (mood) and other uses, and therefore question over whether it should remain a redirect here. As such, I will close as no move for Melancholia, and will take the additional step of moving Melancholy (disambiguation) to Melancholy. Several editors suggested Melancholy be redirected to depression (mood); this possibility may be worth exploring in its own RM. Cúchullain t/ c 20:20, 5 June 2014 (UTC)
Melancholia →
Melancholy –
WP:COMMONNAME by a mile. Try Google, Google Books, Google Scholar, or JSTOR—"melancholy" is far more common.
BDD (
talk)
16:16, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
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Trimmed/updated in lead [2]:
Despite there being a variety of mental and physical symptoms to this condition, clinicians in the 20th century came to attach the term "melancholia" almost exclusively to depression, before largely ceasing to use it at all. As such, "melancholia" is the historical predecessor of the modern mental-health diagnosis of " clinical depression", [1] and the term currently characterises a subtype of major depression known as melancholic depression. [2]
References
Melancholia is variably positioned dimensionally (ie, a severe expression of clinical depression) or categorically (ie, a distinct type)
(rapid note: the trimmed PMID 3074848, Berrios 1988, appears to be a useful source, although not so recent and unfortunately paywalled). 86.169.96.127 ( talk) 16:55, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
...changed to:
Between the late 18th and late 19th centuries, melancholia was a commonly used medical diagnosis, and modern concepts of depression as a mood disorder eventually grew out of this historical practice. [1] Although depression and melancholia are separate concepts, [1] the adjective "melancholic" is still used as a current diagnostic term to specify certain features that may be present in major depression. [2]
References
86.169.96.127 ( talk) 20:55, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you for the ping. :) I made some edits today ( diff). Here is a brief description of the edit with my rationale.
melancholia, n. 1. Extreme, persistent sadness or hopelessness; depression. No longer in clinical use.
At present (21st century), melancholia describes a depression subtype characterised by:
- severely depressed mood, wherein the person often feels despondent, forlorn, disconsolate, or empty
- pervasive anhedonia - loss of interest or pleasure in most activities that are normally enjoyable
- lack of emotional responsiveness (mood does not brighten, even briefly) to normally pleasurable stimuli (such as food or entertainment) or situations (such as warm, affectionate interactions with friends or family)
- terminal insomnia - unwanted early morning awakening (two or more hours earlier than normal)
- marked psychomotor retardation or agitation
- marked loss of appetite or weight loss
The American Psychiatric Association does not like anyone to copy their text verbatim, so I made sure I did not violate their copyright. Plus ICD-11's "Current depressive episode with melancholia" is quite similar. Thus, the list above is representative of current understanding in the two major nosological systems, which I referenced, [3] [4] yet the list does not violate copyright and it is not original research.
Btw, I recognize that many people, including many Wikipedia editors, believe that DSM-5 predominates internationally and in English-speaking countries. DSM-5 is certainly very influential, but ICD is used to classify and understand medical (including mental) disorders at least as often, if not more so. I will eventually write something about that fact with citations, but it's still on my to do list. Mark D Worthen PsyD (talk) [he/his/him] 18:46, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
More generally, I concur about the *historic* character of the article. While finding the many cultural aspects intriguing, I can't help feeling that it also poses particular editorial challenges that aren't altogether straightforward (for example how to weight its *current* med relevance as a somewhat marginal qualifier/subtype of the far broader diagnosis it historically spawned). But hey, that could be cool... 86.134.212.111 ( talk) 20:46, 18 March 2021 (UTC) 86.186.155.219 ( talk) 13:17, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
A bit unclear to me exactly how the various bullet points relate to each of the two cited sources, but hopefully that will emerge in the proposed merger. 86.172.165.171 ( talk) 15:20, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
References
I propose merging Melancholic depression into Melancholia. The two are in essence the same concept - one through a historical and lay-lens, the other in DSM classification. A unified page discussing them in a holistic manner with context would make for a more informative read than two separate articles. I tentatively support the destination page being "Melancholia" as broader more common term, though could easily settle on "Melancholic depression" as more exacting/defined term I guess. Cas Liber ( talk · contribs) 23:52, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
On editorial grounds, I believe pertinent *historical* information about melancholic depression could appropriately appear under Melancholia#Modern connotations (per WP:Summary style, I think it is theoretically conceivable that a history-type '[[Melancholic depression]]' page might eventually be re-created, should this become necessary/appropriate).
As regards Wikipedia coverage of *current* clinical information relating exclusively to the melancholic features specifier (in DSM-IV and DSM-5) of depression, it seems to me that a natural home for some appropriately weighted content would be under Mood disorder#Depressive disorders (maybe also with a passing mention inserted under Melancholia#Modern connotations to point out that the word melancholic is still used, albeit in a much more restricted manner). 86.177.202.213 ( talk) 20:46, 21 February 2024 (UTC)
![]() | This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
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A severe psychiatric illness, Melancholia, has long been recognized. It was a feature of 19th Century psychopathology. In the 20th Century, it was subsumed under the sobriquet of "Depression" and lost. In the past 30 years, interest has been rekindled and the detailed characteristics of the illness have been described, as have the associated systemic dysfunctions of the neuroendocrine system. More important, effective treatments have been developed.
Scidata ( talk) 21:36, 1 May 2009 (UTC)
Dürer's woodcut is actually entitled Melencholia and is usually referred to by that spelling.
S.
It is? if so please update this page & the Durer page
"The present classification of psychiatric disorders is ill-defined, offering poor guidelines for the treatment of the ambulatory and the severe mentally ill." I think that's a little biased, and has no proof. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cannda180 ( talk • contribs) 06:54, 6 September 2009 (UTC)
From the article:
Can anyone say where those quoted passages are from?
Stanley Jackson, Melancholia and Depression: From Hippocratic Times to Modern Times, (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1986) p.30. cites Hippocrates, Works, 1: 263, 4:185. I am not sure how much of this [and in what form] should be included in the article.
I love that image used for this page. Studio1991 06:16, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)
But the writing in the woodcut itself spells it "Melencolia"
wikipedia would be better with a page on "melancholy" as it is used contemporarily. should the modern use go on this page or another page? Id like to know the consensus before i begin work on this page that angers somebody. Spencerk 17:58, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
The object in the woodcut is clearly not a truncated cube, as defined in the linked page. The truncated cube has no pentagonal faces, while the object in the woodcut has many. It is a symbol of melancholy in art, so I think it would be nice to know the correct name for it. Cgray4 13:58, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
On the name thing, I definitely agree with Spencerk it should be listed under the modern name, although it is worth mentioning that it is derived from another word. Going back to old fashioned terms for stuff makes wikipedia go out of sync.
On the article, I think their is something mayor missing in this article as it states: "It is now generally believed that melancholia was the same phenomenon as what is now called clinical depression." That is a bit harsh, everybody feels melancholic at times, it does not qaulify as a 'clinical depression', it is an emotion. Only when stretced to the extreme it can be called a depression. So jay for the backdrop and a little bit of history but where is the detailed description of (normal) melancholy? Oliver Simon 21:03, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
I corrected the Greek word "μελαγχολία" that had been mistakenly written as "μελανχολία". Anyone interested could check the Lidell-Scott dictionary or some texts: Galenus, De locis affectis libri, 8,193,10; Anonymus Medicus, De alimentis, 75,43; Palladius Medicus, Commentarii in Hippocratis librum sextum, 2,21,13.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.75.20.24 ( talk)
It is referred to Ishaq ibn Imran as diagnosing a type of melancholia, but did he use the word 'melancholia', the word 'ḥuzn' as used by Avicenna or some other word? Or was his finding only later classified as melancholia? I unfortunately don't have access to the reference.
The word 'Melancholia' may in ancient times been referring to illnesses with several different labels today, such as clinical lycanthropy and schizophrenia, which this article should of course reflect. But we then need to stay as true as possible to the history and don't make their concepts vaguer than they were. If arabic scholars recognized a mood disorder with symptoms similar to schizophrenia as a separate mood disorder, this in fact has implications for today's debate on the "schizophrenia label". EverGreg ( talk) 11:24, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
Can someone explain how the etymology is simultaneously Greek and Arabic? How is that not a contradiction? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.86.37.47 ( talk) 19:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)
I find it unfair to erase the arabic origin of the word from the inroduction, since the latin word itself is no more than a latinization of the word Milakhuliya, which i believe is some neologism that Ishaq coined for that precise condition, since it has no roots in the arabic language. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.250.113.58 ( talk) 17:00, 23 August 2009 (UTC)
Under the heading of Treatment is the reference to ECT, which is given its own sub-heading. However, it is not defined. Further something appears to be left out, as the flow of the paragraph is disjointed. Unless I am completely wrong, ECT is the acronym for Electroconvulsive thearapy. Its usage has neither a clarification of the acronym, nor does it have a reference to the ECT Wikopedia article. This needs editing. - KitchM ( talk) 03:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)
At the moment the citations are all messed up as superscripts are being used rather than the proper wikipedia style. This means all the citation numbers are now incorrect. Also the article references ref 1 which is a deadlink. Thanks for taking the time to add citations but please could those who have inserted the references update them to the wikipedia style see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citing_Wikipedia Thanks. 194.83.139.177 ( talk) 15:05, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
This article is a bit weak on the medieval and christian theological discussion of melancholy. We had an unsourced contribution which may have rectified this or may have been a personal opinion. I can't tell but is preserving the contribution below. EverGreg ( talk) 17:11, 4 April 2010 (UTC)
The traditional definition of melancholy which originates from Burton, is that melancholy is a fear and sadness without cause. Saying that melancholy is a condition that is without cause is a cause for concern. Modern psychoanalysis suggests that this 'without cause' suggests that the melancholic individual is mourning a loss or even more specific a lack of something. One form of melancholy is religious melancholy which stems as far back as the Baroque epoch. After the secularization of religious institutions and the distrust in religious figures, people started turning away from God, and turned inwards to a more spiritual and less institutionalized form of finding God. See pantheism for more information. It is believed that melancholy originates from the loss of godly devotion and critical skepticism. On a materialistic viewpoint, the melancholic cannot be at a loss, if they never possessed that over which is mourned, e.g. the conflict between the first and second born son. If the second born son is melancholic, yet despises his first born brother because he is first in line to the throne, or for the family riches, or the receiver of the father's love, we speak of the melancholic second born as being melancholic because of a lack of something. In comparison to the 'loss of something' that one sees with religious melancholy, we cannot speak of a 'loss of something' if that person never had it in the first place. Understanding that the individual ins melancholic due to a 'lack of something' suggest a need for something, e.g. perfection or completion, thus seting the seeds of narcissistic attitudes.
This article has been edited by a user who is known to have misused sources to unduly promote certain views (see WP:Jagged 85 cleanup). Examination of the sources used by this editor often reveals that the sources have been selectively interpreted or blatantly misrepresented, going beyond any reasonable interpretation of the authors' intent.
Please help by viewing the entry for this article shown at the cleanup page, and check the edits to ensure that any claims are valid, and that any references do in fact verify what is claimed. Tobby72 ( talk) 18:42, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
I have removed half of this article as it appears to be a direct copy, c/w footnote 'markers' of the article "Resurrecting melancholia" by M. Fink & M. A. Taylor from
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Volume 115, pages 14–20, February 2007.
This sections appears to reference a psychological state unlike the that of the main article and specially attributes negative psychological causes to reasons specific to a particular religious viewpoint. The description provided more closely matches the religious topic Dukkha — Preceding unsigned comment added by Thetrek ( talk • contribs) 03:16, 30 December 2011 (UTC)
The article says "In the 20th century, much of the counterculture of modernism was fueled by comparable alienation and a sense of purposelessness called 'anomie'." To start off with, I don't know that modernism was a 'counter-culture' -- at first, maybe -- but it very quickly became absorbed into the mainstream culture of academic institutions. Regardless, I don't know that there's necessarily a one-to-one relationship between melancholy, and angst; angst is what modernists were concerned with and the cause of anomie, and of ennui. Its more of a condition of anxiety than what was called 'melancholic depression', although to be sure, in humorism, anxiety and depression could both be products of black bile and were both driven out by the same remedies. Yet, much of modernism was also fueled by an opposing sentiment, jouissance, or joie de vivre. Romantics put a lot of positive characteristics behind melancholy, considering it a higher state of awareness. Victorians were influenced by romanticism, and modernists often ended up looking down on the bourgeois culture of Victorian society as being repressed and internalized, joyless and preferring death over life. Angst and jouissance, while entirely different types of states of mind, were both antagonistic values to repressed, bourgeois culture. Expressionism, to some degree, incorporated melancholia, but was soon attacked as 'too bourgeois' itself and as a latent product of romanticism. Brianshapiro ( talk) — Preceding undated comment added 22:14, 20 August 2013
The result of the move request was: No move. This discussion has gotten quite confused in a short order of time, but I think we've achieved consensus on a few key points. First, we have a general agreement that this article is (or should be) about melancholia as one of the four temperaments. As such, there is no agreement that "melancholy" is a better title for it. There is also considerable question and confusion over whether this is really the primary topic of "melancholy" compared to depression (mood) and other uses, and therefore question over whether it should remain a redirect here. As such, I will close as no move for Melancholia, and will take the additional step of moving Melancholy (disambiguation) to Melancholy. Several editors suggested Melancholy be redirected to depression (mood); this possibility may be worth exploring in its own RM. Cúchullain t/ c 20:20, 5 June 2014 (UTC)
Melancholia →
Melancholy –
WP:COMMONNAME by a mile. Try Google, Google Books, Google Scholar, or JSTOR—"melancholy" is far more common.
BDD (
talk)
16:16, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Melancholia. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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Trimmed/updated in lead [2]:
Despite there being a variety of mental and physical symptoms to this condition, clinicians in the 20th century came to attach the term "melancholia" almost exclusively to depression, before largely ceasing to use it at all. As such, "melancholia" is the historical predecessor of the modern mental-health diagnosis of " clinical depression", [1] and the term currently characterises a subtype of major depression known as melancholic depression. [2]
References
Melancholia is variably positioned dimensionally (ie, a severe expression of clinical depression) or categorically (ie, a distinct type)
(rapid note: the trimmed PMID 3074848, Berrios 1988, appears to be a useful source, although not so recent and unfortunately paywalled). 86.169.96.127 ( talk) 16:55, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
...changed to:
Between the late 18th and late 19th centuries, melancholia was a commonly used medical diagnosis, and modern concepts of depression as a mood disorder eventually grew out of this historical practice. [1] Although depression and melancholia are separate concepts, [1] the adjective "melancholic" is still used as a current diagnostic term to specify certain features that may be present in major depression. [2]
References
86.169.96.127 ( talk) 20:55, 17 March 2021 (UTC)
Thank you for the ping. :) I made some edits today ( diff). Here is a brief description of the edit with my rationale.
melancholia, n. 1. Extreme, persistent sadness or hopelessness; depression. No longer in clinical use.
At present (21st century), melancholia describes a depression subtype characterised by:
- severely depressed mood, wherein the person often feels despondent, forlorn, disconsolate, or empty
- pervasive anhedonia - loss of interest or pleasure in most activities that are normally enjoyable
- lack of emotional responsiveness (mood does not brighten, even briefly) to normally pleasurable stimuli (such as food or entertainment) or situations (such as warm, affectionate interactions with friends or family)
- terminal insomnia - unwanted early morning awakening (two or more hours earlier than normal)
- marked psychomotor retardation or agitation
- marked loss of appetite or weight loss
The American Psychiatric Association does not like anyone to copy their text verbatim, so I made sure I did not violate their copyright. Plus ICD-11's "Current depressive episode with melancholia" is quite similar. Thus, the list above is representative of current understanding in the two major nosological systems, which I referenced, [3] [4] yet the list does not violate copyright and it is not original research.
Btw, I recognize that many people, including many Wikipedia editors, believe that DSM-5 predominates internationally and in English-speaking countries. DSM-5 is certainly very influential, but ICD is used to classify and understand medical (including mental) disorders at least as often, if not more so. I will eventually write something about that fact with citations, but it's still on my to do list. Mark D Worthen PsyD (talk) [he/his/him] 18:46, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
More generally, I concur about the *historic* character of the article. While finding the many cultural aspects intriguing, I can't help feeling that it also poses particular editorial challenges that aren't altogether straightforward (for example how to weight its *current* med relevance as a somewhat marginal qualifier/subtype of the far broader diagnosis it historically spawned). But hey, that could be cool... 86.134.212.111 ( talk) 20:46, 18 March 2021 (UTC) 86.186.155.219 ( talk) 13:17, 19 March 2021 (UTC)
A bit unclear to me exactly how the various bullet points relate to each of the two cited sources, but hopefully that will emerge in the proposed merger. 86.172.165.171 ( talk) 15:20, 20 March 2021 (UTC)
References
I propose merging Melancholic depression into Melancholia. The two are in essence the same concept - one through a historical and lay-lens, the other in DSM classification. A unified page discussing them in a holistic manner with context would make for a more informative read than two separate articles. I tentatively support the destination page being "Melancholia" as broader more common term, though could easily settle on "Melancholic depression" as more exacting/defined term I guess. Cas Liber ( talk · contribs) 23:52, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
On editorial grounds, I believe pertinent *historical* information about melancholic depression could appropriately appear under Melancholia#Modern connotations (per WP:Summary style, I think it is theoretically conceivable that a history-type '[[Melancholic depression]]' page might eventually be re-created, should this become necessary/appropriate).
As regards Wikipedia coverage of *current* clinical information relating exclusively to the melancholic features specifier (in DSM-IV and DSM-5) of depression, it seems to me that a natural home for some appropriately weighted content would be under Mood disorder#Depressive disorders (maybe also with a passing mention inserted under Melancholia#Modern connotations to point out that the word melancholic is still used, albeit in a much more restricted manner). 86.177.202.213 ( talk) 20:46, 21 February 2024 (UTC)