THE PREVALENCE OF COGNITIVE DISTORTION IN DEPRESSED ADOLESCENTS

This study examined the prevalence of cognitive distortion in depresse d adolescents. Ninety-four consecutive depressed adolescent psychiatri c outpatients were administered the Beck Depression Inventory, the Dys functional Attitude Scale, the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory and the Maudsley Personality Inventory. Depressed patients who scored abov e a threshold for cognitive distortion were compared to those who fell below the threshold. Of the depressed patients, 47.4% were found to m eet the severity criteria for cognitive distortion, while the remainin g 52.6% were found to be below the severity threshold. Cognitive disto rtion was associated with more severe symptoms of depression, lack of social self confidence and greater introversion. These results do not support the hypothesis that cognitive distortion is universal in clini cal depression. However, they do suggest that cognitive distortion is associated with more severe depression.