A group of researchers proposes the definition for  Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) should be shortened to include only mood and cognitive symptoms. If accepted, the 35-year-old definition found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) would not include symptoms that are associated with medical illness. The proposal is based on a study that appears in the online first edition of the journal  Psychological Medicine . The current definition of major depressive disorder includes nine symptoms — a definition that has remained essentially unchanged since the 1970s.

Aug 7, 2009 – According to new research, college students with depression are twice as likely as their classmates to drop out of school. However, the research also indicates that lower grade point averages depended upon a student’s type of depression. There are two core symptoms of depression—loss of interest and pleasure in activities, or depressed mood—but only loss of interest is associated with lower grade point averages. “The correlation between depression and academic performance is mainly driven by loss of interest in activities,” says Daniel Eisenberg, assistant professor in the University of Michigan School of Public Health and principal investigator of the study.