Abstract

Bereavement exclusion (BE) is a criterion for excluding the diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD). Simplistically, this criterion states that an individual who reports MDD symptoms should not be diagnosed as suffering from this mental illness, if such an individual is grieving a sorrowful loss. BE was introduced in 1980 to avoid confusing MDD with normal grief, because several cognitive and physical symptoms of grief and depression can look similar. However, in 2013, BE was removed from the MDD diagnosis guidelines. Here, this controversial topic is computationally investigated. A virtual population is generated according to the Brazilian data of death rate and MDD prevalence and its five kinds of individuals are clustered by using a Kohonen's self-organizing map (SOM). In addition, by examining the current guidelines for diagnosing MDD from an analytical perspective, a slight modification is proposed. With this modification, an adequate clustering is achieved by the SOM neural network. Therefore, for mathematical consistency, unbalanced scores should be assigned to the items composing the MDD diagnostic criteria. With the proposed criteria, the co-occurrence of normal grief and MDD can also be satisfactorily clustered.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.