title: The stability of mood and social perception measures in a sample of depressive in-patients.
abstract: Forty depressives and 40 matched controls were compared in terms of a number of self-report variables and in terms of their descriptions and evaluations of both real-life and hypothetical social relationships. Clear differences between the two groups reveal poorer self-ratings in the depressive sample, together with a tendency to describe and to evaluate both real and imaginary relationships more negatively. A retest of the depressed patients at the time of discharge from hospital showed improvement only in the two depression measures and not in any of the other self-rating and perceptual measures used. The possibility is discussed that the perceptual variables are predisposing to depression rather than concomitant with it.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003863:Depression; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011618:Psychotic Disorders