Mood Disorders

Mood disorders are a group of psychiatric disorders in which the primary symptom is disturbance of mood, which may be defined as one's sustained emotional state. The disturbance must be severe enough to cause subjective distress and usually results in impaired social, interpersonal, and occupational functioning. Mood disorders are classified in both the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Though it is widely accepted that mood disorders are a cross-cultural phenomenon, the experience and expression of mood disturbance vary widely across cultures.

There are two general categories of mood disorders. Depressive disorders are characterized by episodic or chronic low mood, while bipolar disorders involve periods of abnormally elevated, expansive, or irritable mood. According to the World Health Organization, depression is the...