title: An evaluation of evidence on depressive classification and some alternative suggestions from physiology.
abstract: The wealth of material on depressive classification provides both researcher and clinician with a sorting task of monumental proportions. Moreover the criticisms which have been fired at studies of depressive classification using symptoms as a data base, also require systematic sorting and elucidation. An attempt has been made to review the major studies of depressive classification in a systematic way, together with the principal criticisms which have been made of them. The survey is not exhaustive but aims at providing a relatively ordered overview of the area. The most critical issue, that of subjectivity of data collection is taken up, and it is suggested that biological measures may form a more objective data base for studies of depressive classification than ratings of symptoms and behaviour.
mesh_terms: D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000145:classification; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003863:Depression / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D011570:Psychiatry; D012107:Research Design