TREATED VERSUS UNTREATED MAJOR DEPRESSIVE EPISODES

It is a plausible hypothesis that among treated cases of major depress ive episodes (MDE) in the community, females will be overrepresented, episodes will be more severe, the course of the disorder will be more frequently chronic and the consequences in the depression more serious . This hypothesis was tested on the subjects of the Zurich cohort stud y, an enriched population sample (n = 591), which was examined 5 times between the ages of 20 and 35. We found a longitudinal prevalence rat e for MDE of 20.2% (13.5% for males and 26.7% for females). 173 subjec ts met DSM-IV criteria for MDE and of those 66 (38%) had been treated for depression in the preceding 12-month period. 82% of the treated ca ses were females; in untreated subjects the sex ratio F/M was 1.2:1. T reated cases were found to be more severely depressed, they spent more days in depression over 1 year, experienced greater suffering and suf fered more work and social impairment. However, in terms of family his tory of depression and age of onset, treated and untreated cases did n ot differ. Surprisingly, there was a trend to a more favorable course among treated subjects than in the untreated group. Compared with cont rols, untreated subjects demonstrated normal coping skills. The treate d cases differed from both untreated subjects and controls in their ag gression and neuroticism scores.