Journal of Affective Disorders
Volume 60, Issue 1 , Pages 1-11 , October 2000

Gender differences in chronic major and double depression

  • S.G Kornstein

      Affiliations

    • Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, P.O. Box 980710, Richmond, VA 23298-0710, USA. Tel.: +1-804-8289-452; fax: +1-804-8285-058
  • ,
  • A.F Schatzberg

      Affiliations

    • Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA
  • ,
  • M.E Thase

      Affiliations

    • University of Pittsburgh and Western Psychiatric Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • ,
  • K.A Yonkers

      Affiliations

    • University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
  • ,
  • J.P McCullough

      Affiliations

    • Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
  • ,
  • G.I Keitner

      Affiliations

    • Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
  • ,
  • A.J Gelenberg

      Affiliations

    • University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
  • ,
  • C.E Ryan

      Affiliations

    • Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
  • ,
  • A.L Hess

      Affiliations

    • Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
  • ,
  • W Harrison

      Affiliations

    • Pfizer, Inc. and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA
  • ,
  • S.M Davis

      Affiliations

    • Quintiles, Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
  • ,
  • M.B Keller

      Affiliations

    • Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

Received 8 April 1998 ,Accepted 8 September 1999.

References 

  1. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 3rd ed., revised. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 1987;
  2. Aneshensel CS. The natural history of depressive symptoms. Res. Commun. Mental Health. 1985;5:45–74
  3. Angst J, Dobler-Mikola A. Do the diagnostic criteria determine the sex ratio in depression?. J. Affect. Disord. 1984;7:189–198
  4. Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J. An inventory for measuring depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1961;4:561–571
  5. Berndt, E.R., Koran, L.M., Finkelstein, S.N., Gelenberg, A.J., Kornstein, S.G., Miller, I.M., Thase, M.E., Trapp, G., Keller, M.B. Lost human capital from early-onset chronic depression. Am. J. Psychiatry, in press.
  6. Blehar MC, Oren DA. Women’s vulnerability to mood disorders: integrating psychobiology and epidemiology. Depression. 1995;3:3–12
  7. Burke KC, Burke JD, Regier DA, Rae DS. Age at onset of selected mental disorders in five community populations. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1990;47:511–518
  8. Crowther JH. The relationship between depression and marital adjustment: a descriptive study. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 1985;173:227–231
  9. Eaton WW, Anthony AC, Gallo J, Cai G, Tien A, Romanoski A, et al. Natural history of diagnostic interview schedule DSM-IV major depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1997;54:993–999
  10. Endicott J, Spitzer RL, Fleiss JL, Cohen J. The Global Assessment Scale: a procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1976;33:766–771
  11. Endicott J, Nee J, Harrison W, Blumenthal R. Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire: a new measure. Psychopharmacol. Bull. 1993;29:321–326
  12. Ernst C, Angst J. The Zurich study, XII: sex differences in depression: evidence from longitudinal epidemiological data. Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 1992;241:222–230
  13. Frank E, Carpenter LL, Kupfer DJ. Sex differences in recurrent depression: are there any that are significant?. Am. J. Psychiatry. 1988;145:41–45
  14. Hamilton M. A rating scale for depression. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry. 1960;23:56–62
  15. Hays RD, Wells KB, Sherbourne CD, Rogers W. Functioning and well-being outcomes of patients with depression compared with chronic general medical illnesses. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1995;52:11–19
  16. Katz MM, Wetzler S, Cloitre M, Swann A, Secunda S, Mendels J, et al. Expressive characteristics of anxiety in depressed men and women. J. Affect. Disord. 1993;28:267–277
  17. Keitner GI, Miller IW, Epstein NB, Bishop DS, Fruzzetti AE. Family functioning and the course of major depression. Comp. Psychiatry. 1987;28:54–64
  18. Keitner GI, Ryan CE, Miller IW, Kohn R, Epstein NB. 12-Month outcome of patients with major depression and comorbid psychiatric or medical illness (compound depression). Am. J. Psychiatry. 1991;148:345–350
  19. Keller MB, Gelenberg AJ, Hirschfeld RMA, Rush AJ, Thase ME, Kocsis JH, et al. The treatment of chronic depression, part 2: a double-blind randomized trial of sertraline and imipramine. J. Clin. Psychiatry. 1998;59:598–607
  20. Keller MB, Klerman GL, Lavori PW, Fawcett JA, Coryell W, Endicott J. Treatment received by depressed patients. JAMA. 1982;248:1848–1855
  21. Keller MB, Lavori PW, Meuller TI, Endicott J, Coryell W, Hirschfeld RMA, et al. Time to recovery, chronicity and levels of psychopathology in major depression: a 5-year prospective follow-up of 431 subjects. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1992;49:809–816
  22. Keller MB, Lavori PW, Rice J, Coryell W, Hirschfeld RMA. The persistent risk of chronicity in recurrent episodes of nonbipolar major depressive disorder: a prospective follow-up. Am. J. Psychiatry. 1986;143:24–28
  23. Kessler RC, Brown RL, Broman CL. Sex differences in psychiatric help-seeking: evidence from four large-scale surveys. J. Health Soc. Behav. 1981;22:49–64
  24. Kessler RC, McGonagle KA, Swartz M, Blazer DG, Nelson CB. Sex and depression in the National Comorbidity Survey I: lifetime prevalence, chronicity and recurrence. J. Affect. Disord. 1993;29:85–96
  25. Klein DN, Taylor EB, Dickstein S, Harding K. Primary early-onset dysthymia: comparison with primary nonbipolar nonchronic major depression on demographic, clinical, familial, personality and socioenvironmental characteristics and short-term outcome. J. Abnorm. Psychol. 1988;97:387–398
  26. Kornstein SG, Schatzberg AF, Yonkers KA, Thase ME, Keitner GI, Ryan CE, et al. Gender differences in presentation of chronic major depression. 1995;31:711–718
  27. Kupfer DJ, Frank E, Carpenter LL, Neiswanger N. Family history in recurrent depression. J. Affect. Disord. 1989;17:113–119
  28. Mason BJ, Kocsis JH, Leon AC, Thompson S, Frances AF, Morgan RO, et al. Measurement of severity and treatment response in dysthymia. Psychiatr. Ann. 1993;23:625–631
  29. Merikangas KR, Weissman MM, Pauls DL. Genetic factors in the sex ratio of major depression. Psychol. Med. 1985;15:63–69
  30. McCullough, J.P., Klein, D.N., Keller, M.B., Holzer, C.E., Davis, S.M., Kornstein, S.G., Howland, R.H., Thase, M.E., Harrison, W.H. Comparison of DSM-III-R chronic major depression and major depression superimposed on dysthymia (double depression): a study of the validity and value of differential diagnosis. J. Abnorm. Psychol. in press.
  31. Miller IW, Keitner GI, Schatzberg AF, Klein DN, Thase ME, Rush AJ, et al. The treatment of chronic depression, part 3: psychosocial functioning before and after treatment with sertraline or imipramine. J. Clin. Psychiatry. 1998;59:608–619
  32. Montgomery SA, Asberg M. New depression scale designed to be sensitive to change. Br. J. Psychiatry. 1979;134:382–389
  33. Nolen-Hoeksema S. Gender differences in coping with depression across the lifespan. Depression. 1995;3:3–12
  34. Perugi G, Musetti L, Simonini E, Piagentini F, Cassano GB, Akiskal HS. Gender-mediated clinical features of depressive illness: the importance of temperamental differences. Br. J. Psychiatry. 1990;157:835–841
  35. Sargeant JK, Bruce ML, Florio LP, Weissman MM. Factors associated with 1-year outcome of major depression in the community. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1990;47:519–526
  36. Simpson HB, Nee JC, Endicott J. First-episode major depression: few sex differences in course. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1997;54:633–639
  37. Spitzer RL, Williams JBW, Gibbon M, First MB. Structured Interview for DSM-III-R-Patient Version (SCID-P). New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research; 1989;
  38. Spitzer RL, Williams JBW, Gibbon M, First MB. Structured Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II). New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research; 1989;
  39. Thase ME, Reynolds CF, Frank E, Simons AD, McGeary J, Fasiczka AL, et al. Do depressed men and women respond similarly to cognitive behavior therapy?. Am. J. Psychiatry. 1994;151:500–505
  40. Ware JE, Sherbourne C. The MOS 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Med. Care. 1992;30:473–481
  41. Weissman MM, Bland R, Joyce PR, Newman S, Wells JE, Wittchen HU. Sex differences in rates of depression: cross-national perspectives. J. Affect. Disord. 1993;29:77–84
  42. Weissman MM, Bothwell S. Assessment of social adjustment by patient self-report. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1976;33:1111–1115
  43. Weissman MM, Klerman GL. Sex differences in the epidemiology of depression. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1977;34:98–111
  44. Weissman MM, Wickramaratne P, Merikangas KR, Leckman JF, Prusoff BA, Caruso KA, et al. Onset of major depression in early adulthood: increased family loading and specificity. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1984;43:430–434
  45. Williams JB, Spitzer RL, Linzer M, Kroenke K, Hahn SR, deGruy FV, et al. Gender differences in depression in primary care. Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 1995;173:654–659
  46. Winokur G, Coryell W, Keller M, Endicott J, Akiskal H. A prospective follow-up of patients with bipolar and primary unipolar affective disorder. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 1993;50:457–465
  47. Wolk SI, Weissman MM. Women and depression. In: Annual Review of Psychiatry. Vol. 14:Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Press; 1995;p. 59–95
  48. Young MA, Scheftner WA, Fawcett J, Klerman GL. Gender differences in the clinical features of unipolar depressive disorder. J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 1990;178:200–203

PII: S0165-0327(99)00158-5

Journal of Affective Disorders
Volume 60, Issue 1 , Pages 1-11 , October 2000