Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T17:09:32.537Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Treatment of Chronic Depression

An Illustrative Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

W. A. Barker
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
D. Eccleston
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Extract

Although chronic depressive illness has not attracted a great deal of attention, it is a source of considerable psychiatric morbidity in the community and occurs in a proportion of the new long-stay patients. Prior to the introduction of specific antidepressant treatments, figures for continued affective illness were high. Lundquist (1945) observed an overall recovery rate of 80 per cent for a first attack. Perhaps the best researched study is that of Winokur who followed up for between two and 20 years 225 depressive patients. He showed that 25–30 per cent of female depressives developed a chronic state, compared with 10 per cent of male patients (Winokur and Morrison, 1973).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Eccleston, D. (1981) Monoamines in affective illness—is there a place for 5HT? British Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 257–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honigfeld, G., Gillis, R. D. & Klett, C. J. (1966) NOSIE 30: a treatment sensitive ward behaviour scale. Psychological Reports, 19, 180–2.Google Scholar
Lundquist, G. (1945) Prognosis and Course in Manic Depressive Psychosis. Copenhagen: Mounksgaard.Google Scholar
Naylor, G. J. & Smith, A. H. W. (1981a) Defective genetic control of sodium pump density in manic depressive psychosis. Psychological Medicine, 11, 257–63.Google Scholar
Naylor, G. J. & Smith, A. H. W. (1981b) Vanadium: a possible aetiological factor in manic depressive illness. Psychological Medicine, 11, 249–56.Google Scholar
Naylor, G. J. & Smith, A. H. W., Dick, E. G., Dick, D. A. T., McHarg, A. & Chambers, C. A. (1980) Erythrocyte membrane cation carrier in manic depressive psychosis. Psychological Medicine, 10, 521–5.Google Scholar
Post, R. M. (1982) Use of the anticonvulsant carbamazepine in primary and secondary affective illness: clinical and theoretical implications. Psychological Medicine, 12, 701–4.Google Scholar
Winokur, G. & Morrison, J. (1973) The Iowa 500: follow-up of 225 depressives. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 543–8.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.