clinical depression

noun

: a serious mood disorder involving one or more episodes of intense psychological depression or loss of interest or pleasure that lasts two or more weeks and is accompanied by irritability, fatigue, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, weight gain or loss, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, and sometimes suicidal tendencies : major depression, major depressive disorder

Mild depression is a normal condition, a sadness brought on by life's circumstances. Clinical depression, on the other hand, is a sadness so deep that it can lead to suicide if left untreated.

—Brenda Lane Richardson

Examples of clinical depression in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This means animals can’t experience specific types of clinical depression possible in humans. —Mack Degeurin, Popular Science, 15 Jan. 2025

By Alice Park October 24, 2024 11:38 AM EDT Until recently, clinical depression treatments have fallen into just two categories: psychotherapy and antidepressant medications. —Alice Park, TIME, 24 Oct. 2024

The studies included in the new meta-analysis excluded people with depression at the time of enrollment and may not pertain to people already diagnosed with clinical depression. —Ronnie Cohen, NPR, 5 Jan. 2025

Her eldest son, Gary, is attempting to hide signs of clinical depression, middle child Chip has lost his job in academia, only daughter Denise is having an affair with a married man and Enid’s beloved husband, Alfred, has Parkinson’s disease. —Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 29 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1937, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

clinical depression

noun

: a serious mood disorder involving one or more episodes of intense psychological depression or loss of interest or pleasure that lasts two or more weeks and is accompanied by irritability, fatigue, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, weight gain or loss, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, and sometimes suicidal tendencies : major depression, major depressive disorder

Cases of clinical depression present doctors with a nasty diagnostic challenge: The malady, which strikes about 10% of the population, comes in myriad forms, each requiring different treatments.

—Science