The relationship between depressive and vital exhaustion symptomatology post-myocardial infarction

Objective: Many peri-myocardial infarction patients experience decreased we llbeing, which is either conceptualized as depression or as vital exhaustio n. The objective of the present study is to investigate whether or not depr ession and vital exhaustion are separate entities. It was hypothesized that , if depression and vital exhaustion are separate phenomena, the correlatio n between two depression questionnaires would be higher than those between either of the two depression questionnaires and a vital exhaustion question naire. Method: Subjects were 143 patients who had recently experienced a first acu te myocardial infarction (MI). At 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-MI, patients c ompleted two self-report depression questionnaires (the Zung-SDS and the De pression scale of the SCL-90), and a vital exhaustion questionnaire (the Ma astricht Questionnaire). Correlation coefficients were calculated for the t wo depression questionnaires and the vital exhaustion questionnaire. Furthe rmore, an exploratory principal component analysis was performed on the com bined items of the three questionnaires. Results: Strong and virtually identical correlations were found between the three measures at all four time-points. A one-factor model was the best fi t in the exploratory principal component analysis. Conclusion: The present results do not support the hypothesized separate co nceptual identity of depression and vital exhaustion.