No abstract

Confirming the heterogeneity in depression may be useful in the its diagnosis, treatment and prevention.The purpose of this study was to identify the subtypes of depression and characteristics associated with it using data from clinical samples. Analyses were based on samples from 1,180 respondents from 19 psychiatric hospitals which had been registered in the Clinical Research Center for Depression. Latent class analysis was administered using responses from the Hamilton Depression Scale to identify a homogenous subtype of depression. Association between emergent latent classes and demographic and clinical characteristics were assessed. As a result, three subtypes of depression were identified: severely depressed, affective depressed, and mild depressed. The severely depressed subtype had more suicidal tendencies than the other groups. The affective depressed subtype tended to be as depressive as the severely depressed class, but without psycho-motor symptoms as compared to the other groups. In addition, the affective depressed subtype had more sleep disorder than the other groups. Based on a three-month follow-up study, the severly depressed subtype exhibited more serious and persistent depression. The implications and limitations of this study were also discussed.