Stressful life events preceding the onset of neurotic depression

Abstract

SynopsisSuccessively admitted neurotic and non-neurotic depressives were compared with respect to stressful life events experienced in the 6 months before the onset of the illness. Almost equal proportions of neurotics and non-neurotics had experienced a single stressful event. Significantly more neurotics than non-neurotics had suffered multiple stressful events. An analysis of the multiple events revealed that many were related and involved a single calamity. For multiple unrelated stressful events no significant difference was found between neurotic and non-neurotic depressions.

Clinical Features of Situational and Nonsituational Major Depression

“…Our findings are inconsistent with long-held clinical lore and earlier studies which suggest that endoge nous depression is more responsive to phar macological treatment than reactive depres sion [21], The suggestion o f a more complete response in the situational group may be due to the less recurrent nature o f their illness rather than to the presence or absence o f a precipitant. This is supported by our finding 142 JofTe/Levitt/Bagby/Regan Situational Depression that there was no significant difference in week 5 Hamilton Depression Scores when only data from first-episode cases were in cluded.…”

“…None theless, recent studies evaluating the validity o f the concept o f situational versus nonsitua tional depression have yielded limited differ ences between these two subtypes [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], These studies are limited in their conclusions by several important methodological issues. First, they included both unipolar and bipolar patients which limit the assessment o f life course o f illness and treatment response.…”

Prognostic effects of biographical data and differences between neurotic depressive, endogenous depressive and healthy subjects

“…Neurotic depressives also show lower AMS scores at the beginning and higher AMS scores at the end of inpatient treatment than endogenous depressives. According to discriminant analysis there is no significant difference neither in the number of life events nor in the biographic scale between neurotic and endogenous depressives, a result which is in accordance with Benjaminsen, 1981;Brown and Harris, 1978;Brown et al, 1979;Forrest et al, 1965;Leff et al, 1970;Paykel et al, 1969;Perris, 1984b;Thomson and Hendrie, 1972. Concerning the biographic scale in a strict sense our results are not correspondent to findings in the scientific literature. Parker (1979) found that neurotic depressives reported less parental care and greater maternal overprotection.…”

“…Some authors found no difference between endogenous or rather psychotic depressive disorders and reactive or neurotic depressive disorders (Benjaminsen, 1981;Brown and Harris, 1978;Brown et al, 1979;Forrest et al, 1965;Leff et al, 1970;Nanko and Demura, 1993;Paykel et al, 1969;Perris, 1984b;Thomson and Hendrie, 1972). But there are also investigations which show a difference in life events between endogenous and reactive or rather neurotic depressive disorders.…”

Dysthymia: a review of pharmacological and behavioral factors

“…Several studies, however, reported that stressful life events preceded the onset of both neurotic and non-neurotic depression. 190,191 Given the frequent early onset of dysthymia, coupled with its chronic nature, the paucity of prospective studies concerning the stressful antecedents of the illness is not surprising. However, it was reported that among adults who acted as care-givers for a spouse with a progressive dementia (care-giving itself is a profound stressor), the incidence of major depression and dysthymia greatly exceeded that seen in a matched control sample.…”