STRESSFUL LIFE EVENTS, SOCIAL RHYTHMS, AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AMONG THE ELDERLY - AN EXAMINATION OF HYPOTHESIZED CAUSAL LINKAGES

This study sought to determine possible causal linkages among stressfu l life events, social rhythms, and levels of depressive symptomatology for 81 elderly subjects (51 recently widowed, 30 healthy controls). W e examined the associations among stressful life events (i.e., bereave ment status at baseline or a severely threatening event occurring betw een baseline and followup), social rhythm stability, and the level of depressive symptoms. Results indicated that while stressful life event s were not associated with significant changes in social rhythm stabil ity, social rhythm stability was a significant negative correlate of b oth baseline and followup levels of depressive symptomatology; that is , lower levels of social rhythm stability at baseline were associated with high levels of depressive symptoms at baseline (rho = -0.33, n = 81, p < 0.001) and at followup (rho = -0.23, n = 81, p < 0.05). Bereav ement was also a significant positive correlate of depressive symptoma tology both at baseline (rho = 0.79, n = 81, p < 0.0001) and at follow up (rho = 0.55, n = 81, p < 0.0001). It is likely that future research will benefit from social rhythm assessment obtained temporally closer to major life events and from the use of structured interviews to asc ertain the presence of syndromal major depression at followup as well as the inclusion of subjects with a wider range of functional impairme nts. Nevertheless, these results represent a first step in disentangli ng possible causal connections among stressful life events, social rhy thms, and depressive symptomatology.