Classification of depression by grade of membership: a confirmation study.
One hundred and thirty out-patients with depression were studied by grade of membership multivariate (GOM) analysis. Five depressive types were generated. Pure Type I represented a mild form of melancholia in older, stable males, who showed a modest drug response. Pure Type II included obsessive-anxious symptoms in older patients who responded well to an MAOI drug, but poorly to placebo. Pure Type III was a mildly symptomatic form of depression which responded well to placebo. Pure Type IV included features of agitation, mood worsening later in the day, anorexia and depersonalization; it was commonly precipitated by external stress and MAOI treatment was more effective than placebo. In Pure Type V depression, patients were mostly younger females with high levels of symptomatology, atypical vegetative symptoms, unstable life-styles, disadvantaged backgrounds and a poor response to MAOI and placebo. These results resemble in many ways our earlier GOM study of depression, as well as other multivariate studies of depression in the literature.
Davidson
J R
JR
Duke University Medical Center, Psychiatry Outpatient Programs, Durham, North Carolina 27710.
Woodbury
M A
MA
Zisook
S
S
Giller
E L
EL
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007520:Isocarboxazid / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic
D007520:Isocarboxazid