짧은 症狀期가 反復된 内因性 憂擊症 二例

Two Cases of Brief Attack of Depression

Two cases of recurrent unipolar depression with unusually brief attack were reported. The first case, a 39 year-old house wife, revealed a 10 year history of retarded deprssion. Duration of each attack was 12-24 hours in early stage, but 10 minutes to 3 hours recently. Frequency of attack has increased from several times for a month to several times for a day. The second case was a 55 year-old widow who had a 4 year history of agitated depression. Duration of each attack was 2 days, but recently has increased to be 7 or 10 days. Symptom—freeinterval was 6 months in early phase, however, one week recently. The both cases were untreated prior to this psychiatric admission. Tricyclic antidepressant medication resulted in a favorable outcome in. both cases. Clinical attention should be given in that these cases with micro-attack of depressive episode would easily be misdiagnosed as dysthymic disorder or prolonged single attack of depression. by rough history taking and observation.