major affective disorder
- noun
- /ˈmeɪdʒər əˈfɛktɪv dɪsˈɔrdər/
- Specialized
:
trastorno afectivo mayor
- Many people suffering from major affective disorder experience severe mood swings that affect their daily lives.
Examples
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Treatment for major affective disorder often includes therapy and medication to help stabilize emotions.
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Clinical studies have shown that major affective disorder can lead to significant challenges in personal and professional relationships.
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The majority (58 percent, n = 11) of those who were diagnosed with schizophrenia also had a diagnosis of major affective disorder.
Academic text (2002)
Synonyms
2
7.5
A mental illness that causes strong, lasting changes in mood, like depression or bipolar condition
2
5.1
A mental condition that causes strong, long-lasting problems with feelings, not caused by clear brain damage
1
7.4
A mental illness that causes big changes in mood and feeling
How Severe
- Specialized
- Specialized
2
7.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a serious emotional/mood-related disorder' is directly derivable from the constituents: 'major' (serious), 'affective' (relating to feelings), and 'disorder' (a diagnosed condition). This is a regular compositional noun phrase pattern (and has clear equivalents in other languages, e.g. Spanish 'trastorno afectivo mayor'), so a learner who knows the individual words should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The term major affective disorder comes from the words major, meaning 'serious', affective, meaning 'feeling' or 'mood', and disorder, meaning a health problem. Doctors used these words to show it is a serious problem of 'feeling' or 'mood' rather than a physical illness, so today it means a severe emotional or mood disorder.