Life events, symptom course, and treatment outcome in unipolar depressed women.

Although a large number of studies have addressed issues of etiology associated with stressful life events and diverse forms of disorder, little attention has been focused on the importance of such psychosocial parameters for the course and remission of symptoms once the disorder has begun. The authors review research on this latter topic, with special reference to the depressive disorders. A longitudinal study of 130 22–60 yr old unipolar depressive females receiving treatment was conducted. Results indicate that life events preceding entry into treatment significantly predicted certain forms of depressive symptomatology and of clinical outcome over a 6-mo follow-up period. In contrast, events occurring during the treatment and/or posttreatment period were not related to any of the depressive symptom outcome measures. Different subclassifications of events particularly may have relevance for the course and remission of symptoms in unipolar depressives under treatment. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)