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Dysfunctional attitudes in depressed and recovered depressed patients and their first-degree relatives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

M. J. Power*
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway; Genetics Section, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital, London; Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
C. F. Duggan
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway; Genetics Section, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital, London; Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
A. S. Lee
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway; Genetics Section, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital, London; Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
R. M. Murray
Affiliation:
MRC Social and Community Psychiatry Unit and Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway; Genetics Section, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry and King's College Hospital, London; Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital, Nottingham
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr M. J. Power, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX.

Synopsis

A series of depressed probands and their first-degree relatives were categorized as follows: (a) currently depressed; (b) recovered depressed; and (c) never-ill relatives. Their scores on a subscaled version of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (the DAS-24) were compared. The DAS total scores mirrored previous findings in that the total scores for recovered individuals returned to normal or near-normal levels. However, the dependency subscale scores remained elevated for the recovered depressed group. It is proposed that these results support the conclusion that self-report measures of cognitive vulnerability should focus on specific rather than global effects, if progress is to be made in the search for true vulnerability factors.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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