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Life Events, Life Difficulties and Confiding Relationships in the Depressed Elderly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Julia P. Emmerson ,
Peter W. Burvill ,
Robert Finlay-Jones  and
Wayne Hall
Julia P. Emmerson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, University of Western Australia
Peter W. Burvill*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, University of Western Australia
Robert Finlay-Jones
Affiliation:
Research and Evaluation Unit, Health Department of Western Australia
Wayne Hall
Affiliation:
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales
*
∗Kirkman House, 10 Murray Street, Perth, Western Australia 6001
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Abstract

A total of 101 elderly depressed patients and 85 community residents (matched for age and sex) were interviewed about life events, difficulties, and confiding relationships. Significantly more of the depressed sample reported at least one severe event in the three months before the onset of their illness. Lack of a good confiding relationship was associated with depression in men but not in women. In this relatively affluent Australian sample, life difficulties were rare and, probably as a result, were not significantly associated with depression.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 155 , Issue 6 , December 1989 , pp. 787 - 792
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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