Dysthymia – Persistent Depressive Disorder (Nursing)

00:00 Let's think about Dysthymia now, the persistent depressive disorder.

00:06 When a person tells you, it's been 2 years that they've been really feeling sad, you want to start thinking dysthymia.

00:14 And when we talk to a child, and the child has been and the parents will tell you, it's been a year, she just hasn't been herself.

00:24 Once again, the clinician is going to start thinking that this is a persistent depressive disorder.

00:33 It's so important for us to know that during that period of time, they have never felt happy or felt not sad, not depressed for at least two months.

00:47 So that person has really been struggling with this for over 2 years and a child over a year.

00:55 And we also want to say, but was there any kind of high energy in there.

01:01 And if we hear no that there has never been hypomania, or any kind of high energy, we're going to think this person has dysthymia.

01:13 So when we're thinking about dysthymia, what are we going to see? Well, this is a major depressive disorder but it's called persistent depressive disorder.

01:22 It is one of the depressive disorders, we're going to see the same kind of symptoms, right? We're going to see a change in appetite.

01:31 We're going to see a change in sleep pattern.

01:34 We're going to see a decrease in the person's ability to muster up energy.

01:40 We are going to see some self-worth and self-esteem erosion.

01:47 And this idea of hopelessness, I'm never going to get out of it.

01:51 It has always been this way.

01:54 So when we are thinking about any depressive disorder, remember, it comes along with that hopelessness.