title: Sampling biases in a marital study on severe major depression.
abstract: A comparison was carried out between participants and refusers to participate in a 2-year prospective follow-up study of major depression. 88 consecutively admitted patients of the Psychiatric University Hospital Heidelberg had been addressed. All of them fulfilled both the ICD-9 criteria for Endogenous Depression and the DSM-III-R criteria for Major Depression according to SCID. 38 patients declined participation. Participants and refusers were compared with regard to 56 items of psychopathological symptomatology, socio-demographic data, quality of marital relationship, and personality features. The information about these items was taken systematically from the medical records both of participants and refusers. For some items methods of content analysis were applied to the case histories. Only few differences between participants and refusers were found. Women and more severely ill patients were less willing to accept participation. The degree of marital problems did not differentiate between consenters and refusers.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Backenstrass
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fiedler
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mundt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index