Depressive Illnesses in Late Life

Abstract

In their letter (Journal, May :973) Drs. Kendell and Post report that they have obtained a trimodal combined distribution of the scores of 27: patients on the Newcastle diagnostic index (Carney a al., 1965). They claim, however, that their trimodal distribution is devoid of meaning and a statistical artefact. To take first the meaning ofthe observations : when Kendell and Post's combined distribution, which is reproduced below, is examined, it is apparent that there is a dip at score 5 (the frequency at this score is only 22, whereas both adjoining frequencies are 3). Scores of Maudsley cases on the Newcastle Scale between his psychotic and neurotic patients. The dip in Kendeil's (:g68) individual distribution occurs at precisely the same score. Drs. Kendell and Post can hardly be regarded as having been biased in favour of bimodality. Yet the distributions they have both, independently, found conform, in relation to the dip at score 5, to that reported by Carney et al. (:965), which led them (Carney et al.) to conclude that there were at least two distinct groups of depressed patients.