LIFE EVENTS AND ENDOGENOUS-DEPRESSION - A PUZZLE REEXAMINED

Citation
Gw. Brown et al., LIFE EVENTS AND ENDOGENOUS-DEPRESSION - A PUZZLE REEXAMINED, Archives of general psychiatry, 51(7), 1994, pp. 525-534
Citations number
51
Categorie Soggetti
Psychiatry,Psychiatry
ISSN journal
0003990X
Volume
51
Issue
7
Year of publication
1994
Pages
525 - 534
Database
ISI
SICI code
0003-990X(1994)51:7<525:LEAE-A>2.0.ZU;2-E
Abstract
Background: Research has failed to find the expected clear-cut differe nce in the presence of events provoking onset in endogenous and nonend ogenous depression. Methods: A longitudinal study of 127 depressed fem ale patients from two psychiatric departments were studied using the P resent State Examination and the Life Event and Difficulty Schedule. T wo earlier patient series using the same measures were employed to che ck findings, and two general population series were used to estimate t he expected rate of life events. Results: A large proportion of patien ts experienced a severely threatening event before onset, with the exc eption of a group defined by a British diagnostic category (a relative ly small group of patients with melancholic/psychotic depression who w ere not experiencing their first episode). The results were broadly re plicated in the two other patient series. The proportions of patients who experienced ongoing major difficulties did not differ between the groups. Conclusions: The relative size of this melancholic/psychotic g roup of patients with a prior onset may well have varied markedly from study to study in previous research, and this may help to explain the puzzling variability in findings concerning the role of stressful eve nts in endogenous depression.