Introduction In this essay the author will discuss a case study of a patient with a major depressive condition. The author will also discuss what depression is; the assessment carried out on the patient, the interventions and medications, as well as the effects of the condition on the patient concerned in my case study. The author chose to use this condition for his case study because he finds depression interesting in terms of what and how much impact it had on this patient's physical, sociological, and mental state. Furthermore, using this patient's condition for the case study will allow the author to know the care needs of patients with this condition in the future. Studying depression for the case study will also help to improve the author's theoretical and practical knowledge of depression. The names used in this case study have been changed to meet the requirements of the Nursing & Midwifery Council's code of practice (NMC, 2008) on privacy and confidentiality. Ms. Smith had been admitted to the community hospital for rehabilitation after being discharged from hospital; she had recently been diagnosed with severe depression in January 2014. She was already suffering from a state of anxiety immediately after losing her mother in August 2013. The illness and condition Depression is a psychological disorder that affects a person's mood individual. According to (Moragne, 2011 page 16) depression is a mood disorder caused by a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors that affect a person's mind and body. Mood disorders affect a person's mental, social and physical well-being and this can have major effects on the individual. Below (DSM-IV-TR cited in, American Psych...... half of the document... from communicating by remaining silent and speaking negatively and that can be difficult for everyone. Another problem was that Mrs. Smith became emotional and cried at times; therefore, the author and mentor had to stop the assessment for a while until Mrs. Smith was no longer distressed. This is also supported by (Sanders 2011, p. 501) who has suggested that communicating with a depressed patient can be quite difficult. This is exactly what the author experienced during the evaluation of Mrs. Smith. Since Mrs. Smith was living with depression, she was taking medications such as antidepressants that made her feel better and suppressed the worsening of symptoms she was considered to be at low risk of self-harm as symptoms had been suppressed by the drug, but follow-up and checks by a mental health team have been arranged for her when she is discharged.