endogenous depression

noun

Psychiatry.

1. a severe form of depression usually characterized by insomnia, weight loss, and inability to experience pleasure, thought to be of internal origin and not influenced by external events.

Word History and Origins

Origin of endogenous depression¹

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

At two I began a lifetime of chronic asthma, full blown obsessive compulsive disorder starting around puberty, years of scrupulous hyper-religiosity and hints of endogenous depression.

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By 1980 the term melancholia had gone out of style and had been replaced by endogenous depression.

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