Recovery from depression

摘要

Although depression has been recognized by physicians, philosophers, and poets since ancient times, full recovery from depression was ill-defined and largely ignored in clinical practice until quite recently. Treatment was considered adequate or successful if a patient's mood and function seemed to be significantly better after treatment than before. The only measures of improvement were the patient's reports of function and symptom reduction. Persistent or chronic symptoms were largely regarded as characterological and were labeled depressive personality.