CHRONIC, RECURRENT AND FIRST EPISODE DEPR ESSION

Using data of a quality assurance program about treatment of depressed inpatients of three specialized so-called depression treatment units in Germany, we compared outcome results of depressives with a first ep isode of depression, a chronic and a recurrent course of illness. Acco rding to Hamilton-Depression sumscore, Beck-Depression-inventory sumsc ore at discharge, changes in CGI and GAF from admission to discharge n o significant differences were found. Depressives with a chronic cours e had significantly (p <0.05, analysis of variance) lower sumscores of GAF and higher rates of moderate and severe depression in CGI at disc harge. They also needed longer (p<0.01) time of treatment as inpatient s. There were no differences according to the treatment (psychotherapy , pharmacotherapy a.s.o.) between groups. Authors discuss whether cour se of illness is important for the treatment result of an acute depres sive episode.