Dimensions of Delusions in Major Depression: Socio-demographic and Clinical Correlates in an Unipolar-Bipolar Sample.
- Author:
Leonardo ZANINOTTO
1
;
Daniel SOUERY
;
Raffaella CALATI
;
Giovanni CAMARDESE
;
Luigi JANIRI
;
Stuart MONTGOMERY
;
Siegfried KASPER
;
Joseph ZOHAR
;
Diana DE RONCHI
;
Julien MENDLEWICZ
;
Alessandro SERRETTI
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Delusions; Psychotic disorders; Depression; Dimensional model
- MeSH: Anxiety Disorders; Bipolar Disorder; Delusions*; Depression*; Depressive Disorder, Major; Diagnosis; Hospitalization; Humans; Linear Models; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Psychotic Disorders; Retrospective Studies; Thinking
- From:Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience 2015;13(1):48-52
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The present study aims at exploring associations between a continuous measure of distorted thought contents and a set of demographic and clinical features in a sample of unipolar/bipolar depressed patients. METHODS: Our sample included 1,833 depressed subjects. Severity of mood symptoms was assessed by the 21 items Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). The continuous outcome measure was represented by a delusion (DEL) factor, extracted from HAM-D items and including items: 2 ("Feelings of guilt"), 15 ("Hypochondriasis"), and 20 ("Paranoid symptoms"). Each socio-demographic and clinical variable was tested by a generalized linear model test, having depressive severity (HAM-D score-DEL score) as the covariate. RESULTS: A family history of major depressive disorder (MDD; p=0.0006), a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, type I ( p=0.0003), a comorbid general anxiety disorder (p<0.0001), and a higher number of manic episodes during lifetime (p<0.0001), were all associated to higher DEL scores. Conversely, an older age at onset (p<0.0001) and a longer duration of hospitalization for depression over lifetime (p=0.0003) had a negative impact over DEL scores. On secondary analyses, only the presence of psychotic features (p<0.0001) and depressive severity (p<0.0001) were found to be independently associated to higher DEL scores. CONCLUSION: The retrospective design and a non validated continuous measure for distorted thought contents were the main limitations of our study. Excluding the presence of psychotic features and depressive severity, no socio-demographic or clinical variable was found to be associated to our continuous measure of distorted thinking in depression.
