Summary
The present paper, the fourth and last in a series examining the role of self-esteem in depressive disorder in the general population, deals with recovery/improvement from a disorder at a case level. Both positive evaluation of self (NES) measured during a chronic episode are related to subsequent recovery or improvement. A causal effect is suggested since the measure adds over and above to that of environmental factors previously established to relate to recovery/improvement — the reduction of an ongoing difficulty or fresh-start event. Positive evaluation of self was also related to recovery/improvement from subsequentonsets of case depression. In this instance unlike that for the chronic conditions, self-esteem was measured outside the episode of depression. A causal effect was also suggested because it made an independent contribution vis-a-vis the effect of fresh-start events. Given the small size of the sample the study should be seen as an exploratory one.
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Brown, G.W., Bifulco, A. & Andrews, B. Self-esteem and depression. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 25, 244–249 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00788645
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00788645