SYMPTOMS VERSUS A DIAGNOSIS OF DEPRESSION - DIFFERENCES IN PSYCHOSOCIAL FUNCTIONING

In studies of clinical depression, individuals who demonstrate elevate d levels of symptoms but do not meet interview-based diagnostic criter ia are typically labeled as false positive and eliminated from further consideration. However, the implicit assumption that false-positive p articipants differ in important ways from true-positive (i.e., diagnos ed) participants has not been tested systematically. This study compar ed the functioning of true-positive, false-positive, and true-negative adolescents on clinical and psychosocial functioning. Although the fa lse-positive participants manifested higher levels of current and futu re psychopathology than did the true-negative participants, they did n ot differ significantly from the true-positive participants on most of the measures of psychosocial dysfunction. ''False positive,'' therefo re, is not a benign condition.