Regular ArticleStressful Life Events Interacting With Cognitive/Personality Styles to Predict Late-Onset Major Depression
Section snippets
Subjects
We studied 42 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-IV unipolar Major Depression and 42 matched control subjects over age 65 (mean: 78; SD: 5.7; range: 67–91 years). Control subjects were matched to cases on the basis of age, sex, race, and years of education. Table 1 provides the demographics of the study group; all cases (and matched controls) were white. All participants provided informed consent.
Procedures
Patients were recruited from an outpatient geriatric clinic serving the New Haven, CT, community, and
RESULTS
Table 1 presents t-statistics and chi-square statistics for tests of differences between cases and controls with respect to each of the variables used in this study. Cases did not differ from controls in our sample with respect to the variables used to match cases with controls; that is, age, sex, and years of education; neither did they differ with respect to SES, but cases had significantly poorer physical functioning and were more likely to have had a severe medical illness than controls.
DISCUSSION
Our findings indicate that the effect of stressful life events is modified by cognitive/personality styles in predicting late-onset depression, adjusting for the positive associations of medical illness and reduced physical functioning with depression. Odds ratios for these findings suggest that depression is 6 to 11 times more likely as a function of these interactions. These findings result from a test of Beck's diathesis–stress model of depression, and they support his view that negative
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This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (RO1 MH52905; C. Mazure, PI), and from the National Institute on Aging (P60-AG104), The Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT.