How is Depression Diagnosed? Understanding the Assessment Process

Depression affects 1 in 7 Australians at some point in their lives. It’s a serious mental health disorder which causes persistent feelings of sadness and loss of interest in daily life.

If you’ve been experiencing these feelings for longer than 2 weeks, it’s a sign that you could have depression.

Getting diagnosed by a GP is the first step to treating your depression. Here, Medmate explains how depression is diagnosed and how our team of caring health professionals can help you.

Assessment of symptoms

Depression is diagnosed by a doctor who assesses your symptoms. Symptoms of depression include:

• A prolonged low or sad mood
• Loss of interest in normal activities
• Lack of confidence or self-esteem
• Feelings of inadequacy and guilt
• Negative thoughts
• Feelings that life has no meaning
• Feeling helpless
• Anger or irritability
• Anxiety
• Loss/increase of appetite
• Low sex drive
• Physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and muscle pains

Mental health check-in tests

Depression might mean different things to different people. While some might feel sad and irritable for a period of weeks but still manage to carry on with daily life, for others these feelings may be debilitating.

That’s why doing a mental health check-in test is a good initial marker for diagnosing depression. Doing a mental health check-in can help you understand whether your symptoms are likely to resolve themselves, or whether it’s time to get more support to help you feel better.

There are many organisations that offer mental health information online, like Beyond Blue.

Seeing a mental health clinician

The first thing a mental health clinician will do, after asking you about how you’ve been feeling and learning about your symptoms, is do a K10 test with you. The test is an evidence-based tool which asks you 10 questions about how you’ve been feeling over the past 4 weeks. It’s sometimes called the K10 and is widely used by GPs and mental health professionals.

If you’re diagnosed with depression, a clinician will suggest avenues for treatment, including referring you to therapy, prescribing medication, and encouraging lifestyle shifts such as exercise and meditation.

If you’re diagnosed with depression, you’re may be eligible for a mental health treatment plan. This medicare rebate lets you claim up to 10 individual and 10 group sessions with a mental health professional each calendar year.

To start with, your doctor or psychiatrist will refer you for up to 6 sessions at a time. If you need more, they can refer you for further sessions.

Diagnosing depression is the first step towards treatment. Medmate is a team of health professionals who are committed to giving individuals the help they need. A video consult with one of our caring doctors can lead to diagnosis and referral to mental health professionals like online psycholgists. As a specialist team of telehealth professionals, we help people suffering from depression with our empathetic, non-judgemental care.

Get in touch with a doctor or psychologist from Medmate today and start the process to feeling yourself again.