Recurrent brief depressive disorder reinvestigated: a community sample of adolescents and young adults.

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. 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). 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. 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.

Citation

L Pezawas, H U Wittchen, H Pfister, J Angst, R Lieb, S Kasper. Recurrent brief depressive disorder reinvestigated: a community sample of adolescents and young adults. Psychological medicine. 2003 Apr;33(3):407-18

Mesh Tags

PMID: 12701662

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