Towards a scientific taxonomy of depression

Abstract

Many concepts have been introduced into the classification of depression, including manic-depressive/bipolar disorder depression, etc. Kraepelin's original concept of manic-depressive disorder has evolved into the concept of polarity, and bipolar and unipolar disorders. Psychiatric classification is characterized by an inflation o f the diagnostic categories, including subtypes of depression. This rapid multiplier effect is primarily descriptive, and there is a need to rethink, in a pragmatic fashion, the classification system, in order to develop one that is likely to be of utility and which has a scientific basis. Is the time now right to ask whether there are essential conditions relevant to depression? I think that it is, and here I will introduce the notion with two such conditions. The first is early life stress disorder, and the second vascular depression. These conditions have reached a point where the data supports them as distinct entities. In this paper, the rationale or this is discussed. © 2008, LLS SAS.