Recurrent brief depressive disorder reinvestigated: a community sample of adolescents and young adults.
BACKGROUND
This article presents prospective lower bound estimations of findings on prevalence, incidence, clinical correlates, severity markers, co-morbidity and course stability of threshold and subthreshold recurrent brief depressive disorder (RBD) and other mood disorders in a community sample of 3021 adolescents.


METHODS
Data were collected at baseline (age 14-17) and at two follow-up interviews within an observation period of 42 months. Diagnostic assessment was based on the Munich Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI).


RESULTS
Our data suggest that RBD is a prevalent (2.6%) clinical condition among depressive disorders (21.3%) being at least as prevalent as dysthymia (2.3%) in young adults over lifetime. Furthermore, RBD is associated with significant clinical impairment sharing many features with major depressive disorder (MDD). Suicide attempts were reported in 7.8% of RBD patients, which was similar to MDD (11.9%). However, other features, like gender distribution or co-morbidity patterns, differ essentially from MDD. Furthermore, the lifetime co-occurrence of MDD and RBD or combined depression represents a severe psychiatric condition.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides further independent support for RBD as a clinically significant syndrome that could not be significantly explained as a prodrome or residual of major affective disorders.
Pezawas
L
L
Department of General Psychiatry, University of Vienna, Austria.
Wittchen
H U
HU
Pfister
H
H
Angst
J
J
Lieb
R
R
Kasper
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors