What is dysthymia?

Dysthymia is  one of the two chief forms of clinical depression. It usually has fewer, less serious symptoms than major depression, but lasts longer. In some cases, dysthmia patients may also have a chronic physical illness or another psychiatric disorder. You should discuss your concerns and or any questions with your doctor.

Dysthymia is a chronic form of depression, characterized by depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, for at least two years. Dysthymia is thought to be related to brain changes that involve serotonin, a chemical or neurotransmitter that aids your brain in coping with emotions. Major life stressors, chronic illness, medications, and relationship or work problems may also increase the chances of dysthymia.

Dysthymia can be thought of as a milder form of depression. Like clinical depression, dysthymia causes people to struggle with decision-making, concentration, low self-esteem and fatigue. Because the symptoms don't impact your life as drastically as clinical depression, you may have let yourself go years feeling less than optimal, thinking you'd feel better when something in your life has changed. Many medications treat dysthymia effectively.

People who are dysthymic (a chronic type of depression) don't look into the abyss, but live in a gray state that may be the only condition they have known. To be diagnosed with dysthymia, one has to have had persistent symptoms of depression for at least two years. In many cases, patients have lived with dysthymia so long that they have come to accept it as part of their personality. Nonetheless, with the right treatment, they may begin to feel better than they ever have.

One of the most difficult conditions to self-diagnose is dysthymia or low-grade, unremitting depression.

Dysthymia is a clinical disorder that shares many of the symptoms of depression. However, it causes less impairment in daily functioning and runs a chronic course, meaning that in order to warrant a diagnosis of dysthymia the person's symptoms must have lasted for at least two years and seem to be unremitting.

The symptoms of dysthymia can overlap substantially with those of depression but are lower in intensity and last much longer. A major depressive disorder usually improves in four to six months, whereas dysthymia can be lifelong. Approximately 6 percent of the U.S. population will experience dysthymia during the course of their life.