BEREAVEMENT, DEPRESSION, AND IMMUNE FUNCTION

This study evaluates whether recently widowed women who fulfill criter ia for a depressive syndrome differ in their immune responses from wid ows who do not. Twenty-one middle-aged widows who had lost their spous es 2 months before the initial evaluation and 21 demographically match ed married women were evaluated at approximately 6-month intervals for 13 months. Evaluations consisted of diagnostic interviews using the S chedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, Hamilton Rating Sca le for Depression, and Beck Depression Inventory. Immune function was measured by total lymphocyte counts, natural killer (NK) cell activity , mitogen responsiveness to concanavalin A, and T-cell subsets. There were no statistically significant differences on any of the immune mea sures between the entire cohort of widows and control subjects. Howeve r, the subset of widows who met DSM-III-R criteria for major depressiv e syndromes demonstrated impaired immune function (lower NK cell activ ity and lower mitogen stimulation) compared with those who did not mee t criteria for major depression. This study suggests a relationship be tween impaired immune function and depression in women experiencing th e stress of bereavement.