No abstract available.

Today's diagnostic criteria are based on consensus, however, they are still incomplete and being changed. These unstable but temporarily dogmatic criteria have been constraining the thinking of individual psychiatrists, and invalidating painful scientific achievements based on previous ones. The limitation of the criteria system appears especially clear concerning depression due to the ambiguity of its definition. Therefore, the aim of this article was to review the history of various concepts of depression and to compare this to today's tendency, which attempts to consolidate diversity. In addition to all Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Internal Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9, ICD-9-CM, and ICD-10 were centrally discussed. Classic descriptions of depression were extracted from reviews of classic literature, and some salient concepts and the process by which they had been integrated, divided, and newly proposed was traced. The descriptions of depression whose prototype had been melancholia have experienced significant conceptual changes through DSM-IV and the most recent DSM-V ; they impose tasks that are yet to be resolved. Among them, whether various depressive syndromes are diverse phenotypes of one disorder or they all represent different disorders could be regarded as the most fundamental problem. In order to conduct fruitful studies and to ensure proper treatment of every patient, more precise nosologic understanding of depression must be pursued.
Classification ; Consensus ; Depression* ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Fruit ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases ; Phenotype ; Psychiatry ; Thinking

Today's diagnostic criteria are based on consensus, however, they are still incomplete and being changed. These unstable but temporarily dogmatic criteria have been constraining the thinking of individual psychiatrists, and invalidating painful scientific achievements based on previous ones. The limitation of the criteria system appears especially clear concerning depression due to the ambiguity of its definition. Therefore, the aim of this article was to review the history of various concepts of depression and to compare this to today's tendency, which attempts to consolidate diversity. In addition to all Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), Internal Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9, ICD-9-CM, and ICD-10 were centrally discussed. Classic descriptions of depression were extracted from reviews of classic literature, and some salient concepts and the process by which they had been integrated, divided, and newly proposed was traced. The descriptions of depression whose prototype had been melancholia have experienced significant conceptual changes through DSM-IV and the most recent DSM-V ; they impose tasks that are yet to be resolved. Among them, whether various depressive syndromes are diverse phenotypes of one disorder or they all represent different disorders could be regarded as the most fundamental problem. In order to conduct fruitful studies and to ensure proper treatment of every patient, more precise nosologic understanding of depression must be pursued.
Classification ; Consensus ; Depression* ; Depressive Disorder ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Fruit ; Humans ; International Classification of Diseases ; Phenotype ; Psychiatry ; Thinking

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare but progressive and currently incurable disease, which is characterized by vascular remodeling in association with muscularization of the arterioles, medial thickening and plexiform lesion formation. Despite our advanced understanding of the pathogenesis of PAH and the recent therapeutic advances, PAH still remains a fatal disease. In addition, the susceptibility to PAH has not yet been adequately explained. Much evidence points to the involvement of epigenetic changes in the pathogenesis of a number of human diseases including cancer, peripheral hypertension and asthma. The knowledge gained from the epigenetic study of various human diseases can also be applied to PAH. Thus, the pursuit of novel therapeutic targets via understanding the epigenetic alterations involved in the pathogenesis of PAH, such as DNA methylation, histone modification and microRNA, might be an attractive therapeutic avenue for the development of a novel and more effective treatment. This review provides a general overview of the current advances in epigenetics associated with PAH, and discusses the potential for improved treatment through understanding the role of epigenetics in the development of PAH.
Animals ; DNA Methylation/drug effects ; Drug Discovery/methods ; *Epigenesis, Genetic/drug effects ; Genetic Therapy/methods ; Humans ; Hypertension, Pulmonary/*genetics/therapy ; MicroRNAs/*genetics