Do different subtypes of hospitalized depressives have different long-term outcomes?
C. F. Duggan, A. S. Lee and R. M. Murray
Genetics Section, Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.
In 1965 and 1966, a consecutive series of 89 patients admitted to the
Maudsley Hospital, London, England, with depressive illness were
interviewed, and various personality questionnaires were administered; 18
years later, they were followed up and reinterviewed. Then, on the basis of
the index data alone and without knowledge of their eventual outcomes, they
were subtyped according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria, DSM-III,
Newcastle Index, and Present State Examination diagnostic criteria.
Patients who met the various subtype criteria at index were compared with
those who did not in respect to their long-term outcome. Subtyping had
little prognostic utility except for three endogenous criteria that were
all associated with poor outcome. In addition, DSM-III melancholia had an
interactive effect with the personality measure neuroticism, so that those
melancholic patients who at index had high neuroticism scores were very
likely to have a poor outcome.
