Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T09:22:04.158Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Self-devaluative dysphoric experience and the prediction of persistent first-episode major depressive disorder in adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2004

R. J. PARK
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
I. M. GOODYER
Affiliation:
Developmental Psychiatry Section, Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
J. D. TEASDALE
Affiliation:
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK

Abstract

Background. The quality of subjective experience of dysphoria may predict persistence of depression, independently of severity. This is tested in a clinic sample of adolescents with first episode of major depression using the Depressed States Checklist adapted for adolescents.

Method. Ninety-four adolescents with DSM-IV major depressive disorder (MDD) were followed up at 12 months. Self-devaluative components of dysphoric experience, ruminative style, overgeneral autobiographical memory, and self-reported and observer-rated measures of depression severity were assessed at presentation and evaluated as predictors of persistent MDD.

Results. Persistent MDD was predicted by the independent additive effects of the higher self-devaluative component of dysphoria, lower general intelligence and greater observer-rated severity of depression at presentation. Neither self-reported depression score, overgeneral memory retrieval nor ruminative style contributed.

Conclusions. High levels of self-devaluative dysphoric experience increase the liability for persistence of first-episode MDD. Other affective-cognitive components also contribute. The adolescent version of the Depressed States Checklist is a useful brief measure of cognitive vulnerability for persistence in currently depressed young people.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)