What is High-Functioning Depression? | Is the term needed?

This video answers the question: What is meant by the term high-functioning depression? High-functioning depression is not a mental disorder, rather it's a term used in the popular culture to describe symptoms of depression that have a minimal effect on functioning at work, in school, or in social activities. It's analogous to an old mental disorder called dysthymia or dysthymic disorder, which referred to a set of depressive symptoms that were low-grade and tended to last several years. To better understand the construct, it's important to understand major depressive disorder and a disorder called persistent depressive disorder. Major depressive disorder is a chronic disorder and the symptoms have to be present for at least two weeks for a diagnosis. There's a list of symptoms in the symptom criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and here we see that five or more symptoms need to be endorsed. One of these symptoms must be either depressed mood or diminished interest or pleasure in activities. We see other symptoms associated with the disorder as well including a change in weight or change in appetite, sleep disturbance, psychomotor agitation, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt, difficulty concentrating, and suicidal ideation. When these symptoms occur and some other different criteria are met, someone can have major depressive disorder. Persistent depressive disorder has depressed mood and the symptoms must be present for at least two years. In addition to depressed mood, two or more symptoms from the symptom criteria must be met and we see symptoms like poor appetite, sleep disturbance, fatigue, a decrease in self-esteem, difficulty concentrating, and hopelessness. We see there's a bit of overlap between the symptom criteria for PDD and MDD, but the overlap is not perfect.