"Double depression": two-year follow-up.
Of 316 patients with a major depressive disorder who were followed for between 6 months and 2 years, 80 (25%) had a preexisting chronic minor depression of at least 2 years' duration. The chronic minor depression reduced the apparent effect of the known predictors of recovery and relapse from the major depressive disorder and predicted a very pernicious course for the chronic depression. Furthermore, the longer the patient continued to suffer from a chronic minor depression after recovering from the major depression, the greater the probability that relapse into another major depression would preempt recovery from the chronic depression.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011336:Probability; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012008:Recurrence