endogenous depression
- noun
- /ɪnˈdɒdʒənəs dɪˈprɛʃən/
- Specialized
- Treatment for endogenous depression often involves medication that targets biological imbalances in the brain.
Examples
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Many people with endogenous depression experience severe symptoms even when their lives are otherwise stable.
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There are clinical symptoms of endogenous depression.
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Doctors diagnosed her condition as endogenous depression, which meant it was caused by internal factors rather than external events.
Antonyms
- Specialized
A period of deep sadness and low energy after a stressful life event
How Internal
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'depression arising from internal or biological factors' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'endogenous' (arising from within) with 'depression' (a depressive disorder). Although somewhat technical, the adjective+noun composition follows normal compositional semantics and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a learner who knows both constituents would infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The word endogenous depression comes from the parts endo-, meaning 'inside', and -genous, meaning 'born' or 'from', which gives the picture of a problem that starts inside the body. So, endogenous depression means a low mood thought to come from inside the body, like from genes or brain chemicals, not from outside life events.