title: The clinical research center for depression study: baseline characteristics of a korean long-term hospital-based observational collaborative prospective cohort study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Clinical Research Center for Depression (CRESCEND) study is a 9-year observational collaborative prospective cohort study for the clinical outcomes in participants with depressive disorders in Korea. In this study, we examined the baseline characteristics of the depressive participants as the hospital-based cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were assessed using various instruments including the Clinical Global Impression scale, 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-17), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, Scale for Suicide Ideation, and World Health Organization Quality of Life assessment instruments-abbreviated version. Also, personal histories of medical and psychiatric illnesses and the range of socio-epidemiologic and clinical data were collected from each participant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One thousand one hundred eighty three participants were recruited from 18 hospitals. The mean age of the participants was 47.9±15.9 year-old, 74.4% were female, 82.9% had been diagnosed of major depressive disorder, 40.9% were experiencing their first depressive episode, and 21.4% had a past history of suicide attempts. The majority (85.3%) of the participants were moderately to severely ill. The average HDRS-17 was 19.8±6.1. Significant gender differences at baseline were shown in age, education, marriage, employment, religion, and first depressive episode.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The baseline findings in the CRESCEND study showed some different characteristics of depression in Korea, suggesting a possibility of ethnic and cultural factors in depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Tae-Suk
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seung Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Jung-Bum
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Min-Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jae-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyeon-Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Yim
authors.forename: Tae-Youn
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Jun