sodium-ethylxanthate and Depressive-Disorder--Major

Late-life depression may be undiagnosed due to symptom expression. These analyses explore the structure of depressive symptoms in older patients diagnosed with major depression by identifying clusters of patients based on their symptom profiles.. The sample comprised 366 patients enrolled in a naturalistic treatment study. Symptom profiles were defined using responses to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) and the depression section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) administered at enrollment. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to place patients into homogeneous clusters. As a final step, we identified a risk profile from representative items across instruments selected through variable reduction techniques.. A model with four discrete clusters provided the best fit to the data for the CES-D and the DIS depression module, while three clusters best fit the HAM-D. Using LCA to identify clusters of patients based on their endorsement of seventeen representative symptoms, we found three clusters of patients differing in ways other than severity. Age, sex, education, marital status, age of onset, functional limitations, level of perceived stress and subjective social support were differentially distributed across clusters.. We found considerable heterogeneity in symptom profiles among older adults with an index episode of major depression. Clinical indicators such as depression history may play less of a role differentiating clusters of patients than variables such as stress, social support, and functional limitations. These findings can help conceptualize depression and potentially reduce misdiagnosis for this age group.

Topics: Age Factors; Aged; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major; Humans; Interview, Psychological; Marital Status; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Severity of Illness Index; Sex

Depression is associated with profound impairments in social functioning. Past research and theory suggests that these impairments may be related to a difficulty in the ability of depressed individuals to identify and decode others' social cues. However, the nature of this difficulty is equivocal. This investigation is the first to adopt a theory-of-mind framework to examine unipolar depressed individuals' ability to identify complex mental states from eye expressions.. Women with unipolar clinical depression (N=52) and nondepressed controls (N=30) completed the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task" (). All participants also completed self-report measures assessing depressive and anxious symptoms.. Depressed women were significantly impaired in their ability to identify mental states in the Eyes task compared to nondepressed participants. This difference remained after controlling for anxiety and was stronger for the affective than the somatic symptoms of depression.. The present study was limited by its sample size, resulting in low power for some comparisons. In addition, the study is limited by its use of a heterogeneous depressed sample, including outpatients and volunteers from the community, as well as its use of only female participants.. Our results demonstrate that severely depressed individuals are significantly impaired in their ability to decode others' mental states. We suggest that strategies based on improving basic theory-of-mind reasoning could be incorporated into current therapeutic interventions for depressed individuals to ameliorate their understanding and interpretation of social information.

Topics: Adult; Cognition Disorders; Depressive Disorder, Major; Discrimination, Psychological; Emotions; Eye; Facial Expression; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Psychological; Neuropsychological Tests; Reaction Time; Severity of Illness Index; Sex; Social Perception; Visual Perception

Clinical lore suggests that depression is associated with frequent and intense crying. To test these postulations empirically, a standardized cry-evoking stimulus was presented to depressed and nondepressed participants, and their likelihood of crying and the magnitude of crying-related changes in their emotion experience, behavior, and autonomic physiology were compared. Unexpectedly, crying was no more likely in depressed than in nondepressed participants. Within the nondepressed group, participants who cried exhibited increases in the report and display of sadness and had greater cardiac and electrodermal activation than did participants who did not cry. There was less evidence of this crying-related emotional activation within the depressed group. The lack of emotional activation among clinically depressed participants who cried provides a tantalizing clue concerning how emotions are dysregulated in this disorder.

Topics: Adult; Arousal; Crying; Depressive Disorder, Major; Female; Galvanic Skin Response; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Personality Inventory; Role; Sex

Topics: Aging; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Attention; Bipolar Disorder; Depressive Disorder, Major; Diagnosis, Differential; Humans; Personality; Personality Disorders; Psychotic Disorders; Sex

Topics: Bipolar Disorder; Dementia; Depressive Disorder, Major; Emigration and Immigration; Hospitals, Psychiatric; Humans; Intracranial Arteriosclerosis; Mental Disorders; Neurosyphilis; New York; Psychoses, Alcoholic; Psychotic Disorders; Schizophrenia; Sex; Statistics as Topic; White People

Topics: Bipolar Disorder; Delusions; Depersonalization; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major; Euphoria; Humans; Morals; Neurotic Disorders; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; Personality; Personality Disorders; Psychotic Disorders; Sex; Suicide

Topics: Aging; Depressive Disorder, Major; Genetics, Medical; Humans; Mental Disorders; Psychotic Disorders; Sex

Topics: Adolescent; Aging; Bipolar Disorder; Classification; Dementia; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major; Drug Therapy; Genetics, Medical; Geriatrics; Humans; Mental Disorders; Middle Aged; Personality; Psychotherapy; Psychotic Disorders; Sex; Statistics as Topic; Sweden