Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-l72pf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-09T17:02:09.763Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 14 - Phenomenological Psychopathology of Mood Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

By
Roland Zahn
Edited by
Allan Young ,
Marsal Sanches ,
Jair C. Soares  and
Mario Juruena
Allan Young
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
Marsal Sanches
Affiliation:
Baylor College of Medicine, Texas
Jair C. Soares
Affiliation:
McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas
Mario Juruena
Affiliation:
King's College London
Get access

Summary

In his book General Psychopathology, first published in 1913, Jaspers presented a methodological framework for exploring the phenomenology of symptoms of psychiatric disorders as well as relating experimental psychology and nosology to phenomenology. This chapter briefly introduces the phenomenological approach to symptoms and how this has influenced symptom- as opposed to diagnostic criterion-based assessment instruments, such as those based on the diagnostic statistical manual. A transcultural and historical perspective is employed to identify relevant symptoms of mood disorders and their temporal course. Descriptions and definitions of classical symptoms are provided and extended based on modern evidence to include changes in self-imagery, moral emotions, self-blame-related action tendencies, as well as mood-congruent biases in the representation of the past and future. Lastly the contribution of psychopathology to future subsyndrome discovery, translational cognitive neuroscience, and network-based approaches to the psychopathology of mood disorders is discussed.

Keywords

psychopathologyphenomenologysymptomshistoryclassificationassessmentdiagnosismood disordersdepressionbipolar disorder
Type
Chapter
Information
Clinical Textbook of Mood Disorders , pp. 141 - 150
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Jaspers, K. General Psychopathology. 7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963/1959.Google Scholar
Broome, MR. The Maudsley Reader in Phenomenological Psychiatry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012; xiii, 283 p.Google Scholar
Spitzer, RL, First, MB. Classification of psychiatric disorders. JAMA. 2005;294(15):1898–9; author reply 1899–900.Google ScholarPubMed
Wing, JK, Cooper, JE, Sartorius, N. The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1974.Google Scholar
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, M, Williams, JBW. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders, Research Version. Patient edition. (SCID-I/P). New York: Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute, 2002.Google Scholar
WHO. Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry – Manual. Version 2. Geneva: World Health Organisation, Division of Mental Health, 1994.Google Scholar
Faehndrich, E, Stieglitz, RD. Das AMDP-System: Manual zur Dokumentation psychiatrischer Befunde. 6th ed. Goettingen: Hogrefe Verlag, 1997.Google Scholar
AMDP. The AMDP-System: Manual for Assessment and Documentation of Psychopathology in Psychiatry. Boston: Hogrefe Publishing, 2018.Google Scholar
Zahn, R, Lythe, KE, Gethin, JA, et al. The role of self-blame and worthlessness in the psychopathology of major depressive disorder. J Affect Disord. 2015;186:337–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bhugra, D, Mastrogianni, A. Globalisation and mental disorders – overview with relation to depression. Br J Psychiatry. 2004;184:10–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodmann, DR, Daouk, S, Sullivan, M, et al. Factor analysis of depression symptoms across five broad cultural groups. J Affect Disord. 2021;282:227–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sartorius, N, Jablensky, A, Gulbinat, W, Ernberg, G. WHO Collaborative Study – assessment of depressive disorders. Psychol Med. 1980;10(4):743–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Tseng, W-S. 18 – Disorders of Depression. In Tseng, W-S, editor. Handbook of Cultural Psychiatry. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001; 335–42.Google Scholar
Kendler, KS. The genealogy of major depression: symptoms and signs of melancholia from 1880 to 1900. Mol Psychiatry. 2017;22(11):1539–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angst, J, Azorin, JM, Bowden, CL, et al. Prevalence and characteristics of undiagnosed bipolar disorders in patients with a major depressive episode: the BRIDGE Study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011;68(8):791–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zahn, R, Burns, A. Dementia disorders: an overview. In Waldemar, G, Burns, A, editors. Alzheimer’s Disease. Oxford Neuropsychiatry Library. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2017; 2–9.Google Scholar
Kraepelin, E. Psychiatrie – Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. 7th ed. Leipzig: Verlag von Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1904.Google Scholar
Beck, AT. Thinking and depression. I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1963;9:324–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ebert, D. Alterations of drive in differential diagnosis of mild depressive disorders – evidence for the spectrum concept of endogenomorphic affective psychosis. Psychopathology. 1992;25(1):23–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berridge, KC, Robinson, TE. What is the role of dopamine in reward: hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Res Rev. 1998;28(3):309–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bhalla, G. Duty- and pleasure-related regret – validation of a novel measure and its role in the vulnerability to major depressive disorder. Unpublished master’s degree thesis. King’s College London; 2020.Google Scholar
Hallford, DJ, Sharma, MK. Anticipatory pleasure for future experiences in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and major depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Clin Psychol. 2019;58(4):357–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Owen, GS, Martin, W, Gergel, T. Misevaluating the future: affective disorder and decision-making capacity for treatment – a temporal understanding. Psychopathology. 2018;51(6):371–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schönfelder, S, Langer, J, Schneider, EE, Wessa, M. Mania risk is characterized by an aberrant optimistic update bias for positive life events. J Affect Disord. 2017;218:313–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalgleish, T, Werner-Seidler, A. Disruptions in autobiographical memory processing in depression and the emergence of memory therapeutics. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014;18(11):596–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holmes, EA, Bonsall, MB, Hales, SA, et al. Applications of time-series analysis to mood fluctuations in bipolar disorder to promote treatment innovation: a case series. Transl Psychiatry. 2016;6:e720.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fava, M. Depression with anger attacks. J Clin Psychiatry. 1998;59:18–22.Google ScholarPubMed
Wolpe, J. The renascence of neurotic depression: its varied dynamics and implications for outcome research. J Nerv Ment Dis. 1988;176(10):607–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, PA, Hemsley, DR. Delusions: Investigations into the Psychology of Delusional Reasoning. Hove: Psychology Press, 1997; xi, 171 p.Google Scholar
Zahn, HW. Über Zwangsvorstellungen. Eur Neurol. 1918;43(1):59–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, EA, Blackwell, SE, Heyes, SB, Renner, F, Raes, F. Mental imagery in depression: phenomenology, potential mechanisms, and treatment implications. In Cannon, TD, Widiger, T, editors. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 12. Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews, 2016; 249–80.Google Scholar
Duan, S, Lawrence, A, Valmaggia, L, Moll, J, Zahn, R. Maladaptive blame-related action tendencies are associated with vulnerability to major depressive disorder. J Pasychiatr Res. 2022;145:70–6.Google Scholar
Roseman, IJ, Wiest, C, Swartz, TS. Phenomenology, behaviors, and goals differentiate discrete emotions. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1994;67(2):206–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tangney, JP, Stuewig, J, Mashek, DJ. Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annu Rev Psychol. 2007;58:345–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn, R, Green, S, Beaumont, H, et al. Frontotemporal lobar degeneration and social behaviour: dissociation between the knowledge of its consequences and its conceptual meaning. Cortex. 2017;93:107–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cuthbert, BN, Insel, TR. Toward the future of psychiatric diagnosis: the seven pillars of RDoC. BMC Med. 2013;11:126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiner, B. Human Motivation: Metaphors, Theories, and Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1992.Google Scholar
Weiner, B. An attributional theory of achievement-motivation and emotion. Psychol Rev. 1985;92(4):548–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Abramson, LY, Seligman, MEP, Teasdale, JD. Learned helplessness in humans – critique and reformulation. J Abnorm Psychol. 1978;87(1):49–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinaugh, DJ, Hoekstra, RHA, Toner, ER, Borsboom, D. The network approach to psychopathology: a review of the literature 2008–2018 and an agenda for future research. Psychol Med. 2020;50(3):353–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanken, TF, Deserno, MK, Dalege, J, et al. The role of stabilizing and communicating symptoms given overlapping communities in psychopathology networks. Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):5854.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harrison, P, Walton, S, Fennema, D, et al. Development and validation of the Maudsley Modified Patient Health Questionnaire (MM-PHQ-9). BJPsych Open. 2021;7(4):e123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lythe, KE, Gethin, JA, Workman, CI, et al. Subgenual activation and the finger of blame: individual differences and depression vulnerability. Psychol Med. 2022;52(8):1560–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, S, Ralph, MAL, Moll, J, Deakin, JFW, Zahn, R. Guilt-selective functional disconnection of anterior temporal and subgenual cortices in major depressive disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2012;69(10):1014–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn, R, Weingartner, JH, Basilio, R, et al. Blame-rebalance fMRI neurofeedback in major depressive disorder: a randomised proof-of-concept trial. NeuroImage: Clin. 2019;24:101992.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zahn, R. The role of neuroimaging in translational cognitive neuroscience. Top Magn Reson Imaging. 2009;20(5):279–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×