Autumn is clinically a high season for depression, and reporters have recently seen on the Internet that there is a wealth of various tables on depression self-tests, and some Internet users are very keen on self-testing activities. Can you really get an answer to the question of whether you are suffering from depression through a few dozen self-test questions? Professor Yao Zhijian, director of depression specialist at Nanjing Brain Hospital, introduced that depression has a very strict set of clinical criteria for determining depression, and the depression self-assessment table on the Internet is not scientific, so it is recommended that you do not trust it, and if you find the first signs of depression, you should not be afraid to seek medical help. Online self-test he was scared and overwhelmed It is understood that the ratio of male to female incidence of depression is about 1:2, the latest statistics show that the prevalence of major depression in China is 2.51%, a significant increase compared to the 80s, in the case of unchanged genetic factors, stress, social life events caused by increased depression. With that, people are paying more attention to the disease, and taking depression self-tests online is one of the manifestations. Professor Yao Zhijian said that a few days ago when he was in the clinic, a man in his 40s told him that he had taken several depression self-assessment forms online at the same time and felt like he was depressed, manic, and a little bit like schizophrenia, and now he was a little bit overwhelmed. Experts believe that depressed mood and depression are two different things, a degree of quantification. Depressed mood is a very common emotional component that can occur in all people. When people encounter mental stress, life setbacks, painful situations, old age, sickness and death, natural and man-made disasters, it is logical that they will develop a depressed mood. Depression is a mental illness with depressive mood as the prominent symptom, and is characterized by melancholy and anhedonia. Patients will have a sense of desolation, often sighing, lose interest in people and things, often have headaches, heartburn, insomnia, early awakening, fatigue, etc. When the disease is serious, people will feel strongly anxious about the world, and even suicidal thoughts. In addition to a set of strict clinical criteria for the diagnosis of depression, the severity of the mood, the course of the disease and social functioning must also be taken into account, so doctors do not jump to this conclusion. Treat depression as a chronic disease Experts remind readers that some depressed patients with symptoms such as low appetite, fatigue, body pain and lack of concentration are often repeatedly seen in various clinical departments such as neurology, cardiology and gastroenterology, but nothing can be found wrong. Professor Yao Zhijian told reporters that one of his patients had taken Chinese herbal medicine for 3 years continuously at a major hospital for adjustment because of throat discomfort, constant desire to cough and a little pain in the neck and back, and then his family brought him to a depression specialist and was diagnosed with depression, and after 1 month of taking regular treatment depression medicine, all the uncomfortable symptoms that plagued him for 3 years disappeared. ”Like cardiovascular diseases, depression is actually a chronic disease”, Professor Yao Zhijian told the reporter, but unfortunately, only about 10% of depressed patients come to the hospital, and this part of patients are basically already moderately depressed. Depression treatment cycle is generally 1-2 years, some people need 2-3 years, if standardized specialist treatment, usually 50% of patients can stop the medication, he can work and live normally. However, there are still 20% of refractory major depressions that may require lifelong medication.