What exactly is dysthymic disorder?

Question

Can this disorder be cured or controlled with medication?

Answer 1

Dysthymic Disorder is characterized by chronic depression, but with less severity than a major depression. The essential symptom for dysthymic disorder is an almost daily depressed mood for at least two years, but without the necessary criteria for a major depression. Low energy, sleep or appetite disturbances and low self-esteem are usually part of the clinical picture as well. The diagnostic criteria is as follows:

* On the majority of days for 2 years or more, the patient reports depressed mood or appears depressed to others for most of the day.

* When depressed, the patient has 2 or more of:

Appetite decreased or increased
Sleep decreased or increased
Fatigue or low energy
Poor self-image
Reduced concentration or indecisiveness
Feels hopeless

* During this 2 year period, the above symptoms are never absent longer than 2 consecutive months.

* During the first 2 years of this syndrome, the patient has not had a Major D

Answer 2

in layman's terms, dysthymia is just gloominess. If a normal person's emotions were a sine function, and above the x-axis is happy and below the x-axis is sad, then a person who suffers from dysthymia's emotions are like a sin(x) - 0.5 or so.

Answer 3

A friend of mine takes cymbalta for dysthymia.

Answer 4

i dont know but an extremely pretty girl like yourself would not have any disorders so dont worry