Depression and generalized anxiety symptoms in panic disorder. Implications for comorbidity.

Questionnaires and clinician rating scales have been used to assess anxious and depressive symptoms among patients with panic disorder, but these methods do not usually evaluate symptoms in the same terms as the standardized criteria of diagnostic interviews. The present study provides data on the prevalence of symptoms of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder in 64 patients with panic disorder. Symptoms were assessed using DSM-III-R definitional criteria that consider not only the presence and severity of symptoms, but also their duration and pervasiveness. Depressive symptoms that most frequently met definitional criteria for diagnostic significance were fatigue, insomnia, and concentration difficulties. Over 50% of the sample endorsed feelings of tension, irritability, and restlessness. Disturbances in appetite, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal ideation were found in less than 10% of the nondepressed panic patients. The implications of these findings for conceptualizing the comorbidity among anxiety and depressive disorders are discussed.

The symptoms of major depression.

The 8 symptoms of Criterion B for major depressive disorder (MDE) in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders were studied in 107 cases and 57 noncases of MDE (all had depressed mood or pervasive anhedonia for more than 2 weeks). Sleep change, loss of energy, and appetite change were the most common symptoms, and psychomotor change and feelings of worthlessness the least common, in MDE. Loss of energy and sleep change were the best single symptoms and thoughts of death, feelings of worthlessness, and psychomotor change the worst for both diagnoses. Psychomotor change was the best and thoughts of death the worst indicator of MDE. Absence of sleep change and of loss of energy were the best and absence of thoughts of death, psychomotor change, and feelings of worthlessness the worst indicators of non-MDE. Results suggest that vegetative symptoms are more central to clinical depression than feelings of worthlessness, self-reproach, or guilt.

Sex differences in subclinical depression: administration of the Beck Depression Inventory in public and private disclosure situations.

To test the idea that the preponderance of women depressives is due to a masculine tendency to avoid negative social consequences by reporting fewer depressive symptoms, two studies were conducted in which the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to both sexes under conditions of public and private disclosure. It was hypothesized that men would score lower on the BDI than women in the public disclosure condition but not in the private disclosure condition. Despite procedural differences in the two experiments, the results of both studies failed to support the experimental hypothesis. However, in each case, analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction between sex of subject and sex of examiner (p less than .05). These results are discussed in terms of a willingness to admit more symptoms to a same-sex person due to fear of rejection by the opposite sex and in terms of gender-specific patterns of self-disclosure in first-encounter heterosexual situations. Results of both studies also suggest BDI scores of college students can be interpreted without regard to type of administration.

Subclinical depression and performance expectations, evaluations of performance, and actual performance.

Four hundred sixty-nine female and 311 male college students were administered a depression scale, an analogies test, and questions related to expectations and evaluations of performance. As predicted, significant negative correlations were found between subclinical depression and expectations and evaluations of performance. A significant negative correlation between depression and actual performance was apparent for females only. However, this correlation was much weaker than similar correlations previously reported for college student populations. It was concluded that low performance expectations constitute one dimension of subclinical depression. This suggests that Beck's theory of clinical depression, which holds that negative self-perceptions and other cognitions are importantly involved in depression, may be useful in understanding normal mood variation. The findings also suggest that some similarities exist between clinically and subclinically depressed groups in that both groups are reported to hold low performance expectations, but display minimal performance deficits.