The authors conducted Pubmed searches to examine the epidemiological characteristics, symptoms, association with bipolar disorder, personality and temperament features, biology, and pharmacotherapy response of atypical depression and significance of current knowledge about this subtype of depression in treatment planning. Atypical depression has a high prevalence rate, starts early in life, tends to last longer, is more likely to occur in people with bipolar disorder, has high comorbidity of anxiety disorders, carries more risk of suicidal behavior, and has distinct personality psychopathology and biological traits. Atypical depression is an important specifier with significance in terms of predicting clinical course of depression, and hence in treatment planning and service use.
Keywords: Atypical depression; epidemiology; pharmacotherapy.