title: Diagnosing melancholic depression: some personal observations.
abstract: The objective of this study was to offer some personal observations as to how melancholia can be diagnosed and differentiated from the non-melancholic depressive conditions.
  
  
  
  Personal clinical and research-based observations are presented following a critique of common current strategies.
  
  
  
  The paper offers views on the most differentiating clinical features, argues for adding illness course variables to symptoms and provides details of the Sydney Melancholic Prototypic Index, a measure with a high overall classification rate in differentiating melancholic and non-melancholic depression.
  
  
  
  Greater precision in differentiating melancholic from non-melancholic depression is advanced by weighting signs and symptoms of psychomotor disturbance, as well as including illness correlates and family history in the diagnostic process.
authors.affiliation: Scientia Professor of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick, NSW, and; Professorial Fellow, Black Dog Institute, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Parker
mesh_terms: D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: depression; diagnosis; melancholia