Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T01:14:54.873Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Psychosocial correlates of clinical depression after psychiatric in-patient treatment: methodological issues and baseline differences between recovered and non-recovered patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Hans O. F. Veiel*
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany; Forensic Psychiatric Institute, B.C., Canada
Christine Kühner
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany; Forensic Psychiatric Institute, B.C., Canada
Gerhard Brill
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany; Forensic Psychiatric Institute, B.C., Canada
Wolfgang Ihle
Affiliation:
Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany; Forensic Psychiatric Institute, B.C., Canada
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr H. O. F. Veiel, Forensic Psychiatric Institute, 70 Colony Farm Road, Port Coquitlam, B.C., Canada V3C 5X9.

Synopsis

General methodological and design issues in research on psychosocial outcome predictors of clinical depression are discussed, and the first stage of a study of discharged depressed in-patients is presented. It involved 115 recovered and 75 non-recovered such patients who were compared regarding stress factors, social support, personality and coping styles. While there were few differences between recovered and non-recovered patients with respect to stable personality traits, recovered patients were less likely to have had severe long-term life difficulties, and their coping style differed: it was characterized by more negative appraisals of stressful situations, greater problem avoidance, less palliative activities, and a lesser inclination to solicit social support. Whereas among women without partners, as well as men, non-recovery was also associated with less support from friends, in particular psychological-emotional support in crises, non-recovered women with partners had much more such support. The results are discussed with reference to the existing literature on outcome correlates of clinical depression.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angst, J. (1988). Risikofaktoren für den Verlauf affektiver Störungen. In Affektive Störungen (ed. v. Zerssen, D. and Möller, H.-J.), pp. 99101. Springer: Berlin.Google Scholar
Barnett, P. A. & Gotlib, I. H. (1988). Psychosocial functioning and depression: distinguishing among antecedents, concomitants, and consequences. Psychological Bulletin 104, 97126.Google Scholar
Belle, D. (1982). The stress of caring: women as providers of social support. In Handbook of Stress (ed. Goldberger, L. and Breznitz, S.), pp. 496505. Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Belsher, G. & Costello, C. G. (1988). Relapse after recovery from unipolar depression: a critical review. Psychological Bulletin 104, 8496.Google Scholar
Billings, A. G. & Moos, R. H. (1985). Psychosocial processes of remission in unipolar depression: comparing depressed patients with matched community controls. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 53, 314325.Google Scholar
Blatt, S. J., Quinlan, D. M., Chevron, E. S., McDonald, C. & Zuroff, D. (1982). Dependency and self-criticism: psychological dimensions of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1, 113124.Google Scholar
Blazer, D. G. (1983). Impact of late-life depression on the social network. American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 162165.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1978). Social Origins of Depression. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Andrews, B., Harris, T. O., Adler, Z. & Bridge, L. (1986). Social support, self-esteem, and depression. Psychological Medicine 16, 813831.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Adler, Z. & Bifulco, A. (1988). Life events, difficulties and recovery from chronic depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 152, 487498.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Andrews, B., Bifulco, A. & Veiel, H. O. F. (1990 a). Self-esteem and depression. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 25, 200209.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Bifulco, A., Veiel, H. O. F. & Andrews, B. (1990 b). Self-esteem and depression. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 25, 225234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brugha, T. S., Bebbington, P. E., McCarthy, B., Sturt, E., Wykes, T. & Potter, J. (1990). Gender, social support and recovery from depressive disorders: a prospective clinical study. Psychological Medicine 20, 147156.Google Scholar
Cleary, P. D. & Angel, R. (1984). The analysis of relationships involving dichotomous dependent variables. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 25, 334348.Google Scholar
Cook, T. D. & Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Houghton Mifflin: Boston.Google Scholar
George, L. K., Blazer, D. G., Hughes, D. C. & Fowler, N. (1989). Social support and the outcome of major depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 154, 478485.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a Different Voice. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
Hammen, G., Ellicott, A., Gitlin, M. & Jamison, K. R. (1989). Sociotropy/autonomy and vulnerability to specific life events in patients with unipolar depression and bipolar disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 98, 154160.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Klerman, G. L., Clayton, P. J., Keller, M. B., McDonald-Scott, P. & Larkin, B. H. (1983). Assessing personality: Effects of the depressive state on trait measurement. American Journal of Psychiatry 140, 695699.Google Scholar
Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Klerman, G. L., Andreasen, N. C., Clayton, P. J. & Keller, M. B. (1986). Psycho-social predictors of chronicity in depressed patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 148, 648654.Google Scholar
Jackson, D. N. (1967). Manual for the Personality Research Form. Research Psychologists Press: Gashen.Google Scholar
Keller, M. B., Shapiro, W. R. & Lavori, P. W. et al. (1982). Recovery in major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 39, 905910.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keller, M. B., Lavori, P. W., Rice, J., Coryell, W. & Hirschfeld, R. M. A. (1986). The persistent risk of chronicity in recurrent episodes of nonbipolar major depressive disorder: a prospective follow-up. American Journal of Psychiatry 143, 2428.Google Scholar
Kobasa, S. C. Q. & Puccetti, M. C. (1983). Personality and social resources in stress resistance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45, 839850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewinsohn, P. M., Steinmetz, J. L., Larson, D. W. & Franklin, J. (1981). Depression-related cognitions: antecedent or consequence? Journal of Abnormal Psychology 90, 213219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maurer, K., Biehl, H., Kühner, C. & Löffler, W. (1989). On the way to expert systems. Comparing DSM-III computer diagnoses with CATEGO (ICG) diagnoses in depressive and schizophrenic patients. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences 239, 127132.Google Scholar
Monroe, S. M. (1983). Social support and disorder: toward an untangling of cause and effect. American Journal of Community Psychology 11, 8197.Google Scholar
Monroe, S. M. & Steiner, S. C. (1986). Social support and psychopathology: interrelations with preexisting disorder, stress, and personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95, 2939.Google Scholar
Murphy, E. (1983). The prognosis of depression in old age. British Journal of Psychiatry 42, 111119.Google Scholar
Murray, H. A. (1938). Explorations in Personality. Oxford University Press: New York.Google Scholar
Perrez, M. & Reicherts, M. (1986). Appraisal, coping and attribution processes by depressed persons: an S-R-S-R approach. German Journal of Psychology 10, 315326.Google Scholar
Perrez, M. & Reicherts, M. (1987). Behavior and cognition analysis of coping with stress by depressed persons. A criterion- and process-oriented measurement approach. In Progress in Psychotherapy Research (ed. Huber, W.), pp. 115133. Presses Universitaires: Louvain-la-Neuve.Google Scholar
Persons, J. B. & Rao, P. A. (1985). Longitudinal study of cognitions, life events, and depression in psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 94, 5163.Google Scholar
Scott, J. (1988). Chronic depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 153, 287297.Google Scholar
Skinner, H. A., Jackson, D. N. & Rampton, G. M. (1976). The Personality Research Form in a Canadian context: does language make a difference? Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science 8, 156168.Google Scholar
Stumpf, H., Angleitner, A., Wieck, T., Jackson, D. N. & Beloch-Till, H. (1985). Deutsche Personality Research Form (PRF). Hogrefe: Göttingen.Google Scholar
Turner, R. J. & Avison, W. R. (1989). Gender and depression: assessing exposure and vulnerability to life events in a chronically strained population. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 77, 443455.Google Scholar
Veiel, H. O. F. (1990). The Mannheim Interview on Social Support: reliability and validity data from three samples. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 25, 250259.Google Scholar
Veiel, H. O. F. & Kühner, C. (1990). Relatives and depressive relapse: the critical period after discharge from in-patient treatment. Psychological Medicine 20, 977984.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, M., Coryell, W., Corenthal, C. & Wilson, S. (1986). A self-report scale to diagnose major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 43, 10761081.Google Scholar