Dysphoria: self-devaluative and affective components in recovered depressed patients and never depressed controls

Background. The Interacting Cognitive Subsystems analysis of cognitive vuln erability to depression predicts that subjective experiences of dysphoria i n recovered depressed patients will be qualitatively different from those o f controls. This study tested this prediction using a new instrument, the D epressed States Checklist. Methods. Twenty-three recovered recurrently depressed patients and 54 never depressed controls rated the affective and self-devaluative components of a dysphoric experience. Results. Groups reported similar levels of affective component but recovere d depressed patients reported higher self-devaluative dysphoric. experience . At zero affective component of dysphoria neither group reported any self- devaluative feelings. With increasing affective component of dysphoria, the self-devaluative component increased significantly more in recovered patie nts than in controls. The ratio of self-devaluative to affective components of dysphoria significantly differentiated recovered depressed patients fro m controls. Conclusions. As predicted, dysphoria. in recovered depressed patients is qu alitatively different from controls in ways that increase vulnerability to major depression. The Depressed States Checklist is a new, brief, measure o f cognitive vulnerability to depression that may be particularly useful in large, prospective, epidemiological studies.