title: Life events, social support, and onset of major depressive episode in Finnish patients.
abstract: We investigated differences in life events and social support between subgroups of depressed patients and the distribution of life events in phases preceding or during depression. In the Vantaa Depression Study, 269 psychiatric patients with DSM-IV major depressive disorder were diagnosed with Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, Version 2.0, and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R personality disorders (SCID-II). Life events during the 12 months preceding the interview were investigated with the Interview for Recent Life Events, and social support with the Interview Measure of Social Relationships and the Perceived Social Support Scale-Revised. Nearly all patients (91%) reported life events, on average 4.1 per preceding year. No major differences between sociodemographic or clinical subgroups were found; the frequency of events was somewhat greater among the younger subjects, whereas those with comorbid alcoholism or personality disorders perceived less social support. Although events were distributed evenly between the time preceding depression, the prodromal phase, and the index major depressive episode, two thirds of the patients attributed their depression to some event. Despite clinical and sociodemographic heterogeneity, patients with major depressive disorder are fairly homogeneous in terms of life events during the preceding year. Events do not cluster in any particular phase of the progression to an episode.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Ulla S
authors.initials: US
authors.lastname: Leskelä
authors.forename: Tarja K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Melartin
authors.forename: Paula S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Lestelä-Mielonen
authors.forename: Heikki J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Rytsälä
authors.forename: T Petteri
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Sokero
authors.forename: Martti E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Heikkinen
authors.forename: Erkki T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Isometsä
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012944:Social Support