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2002, Number 1

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Salud Mental 2002; 25 (1)

Relapse and recurrence of depressed patients: a retrospective study

Heinze G, Villamil V, Cortés J

Language: Spanish
References: 18
Page: 3-8
PDF size: 141.91 Kb.


ABSTRACT

Ten per cent of the world’s overall population is affected by major depression. It is more common among 20-40 year old women, young people living in cities, bachelors, and people having a family background of alcoholism and suicide. According to its presentation, depression is divided in single and recidivant episodes, in remission, in recovery, in relapsing and in recurrence. While 50% of the depressed people recover after a one-year period, only 18% recover after four-years. Likewise, 70% of the subjects have subsequent depressive episodes, mainly related to stressing psycho-social events.
The goal of this paper was to identify the accumulated probability of recurrence after the first and second major depressive episodes.
During the first stage, 385 records belonging to major depression subjects were reviewed. Through these records, the number of depressive symptoms each patient had through his/her lifetime; onset date; remission; whether patients received any specialized attention, and any periods of time where patients showed no symptoms were researched. Only those patients who were first attended at this institute were included in the second stage. Two hundred and twenty-eight of them fell into these criteria. For statistical analysis, X2 test, Kaplan-Meyer’s test, and Log Rank test were used.
Results showed the following average ages: 42 years for single episodes, 50 years for relapses, and 48 years for recurrences. While anxiety disorders were more commonly related to single episodes, cluster C appeared more frequently in the three groups; psycho-social stress was more closely related to relapses; the accumulated probability of depression showed that the older the patient was, the higher the probability of having a depression relapse (r = 0.504; p = 0.0003). Tryciclics were the most commonly prescribed drugs in both stages. While dropping-out the treatment after a single major depressive episode significantly predicted recurrence (p= 0.002), it was not the case after a second depressive episode (p= 0.44).
Although our results resemble those reported in the international bibliography, it would be advisable to expand our sample in the future.


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