Patient Dimensions as Predictors of Varied Treatment Responses and Outcomes in Patients With Major Depression
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
1969-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Depression affects over one million people in Canada, resulting in $14.4 billion per year in
costs to Canadian society. In order to prevent this often lifelong disorder, it is critically
important to identify risk factors for the recurrence of depression. A crucial force in
maintaining depression is the generation of stressful life events. That is, individuals who
have a history of depression are likely to generate the very events that precipitate future
depressive episodes (e.g., relationship break-up, fired from job, conflicts with the law) due
to negative personality characteristics and disrupted social support networks resulting from
previous episodes. This project is the first to test a model that examines the role of
negative personality, low social support, and childhood abuse and neglect as risk factors for
the generation of stressful life events that predict future depression. We will test this
model in a group of patients meeting formal criteria for depression who will be treated and
then followed up for 12 months or until depression recurrence. With this long-term design we
will be in a unique position to understand how depression is maintained over time, thus
suggesting important treatment strategies to prevent depression recurrence.