Outcomes: Initially depressed patients were separated into 2 groups:
(1) chronically depressed (still depressed during follow-up visits)
(2) recovered (not depressed in follow-up visits)
Risk factors:
(1) diurnal variation in symptoms
(2) poor self-appreciation
(3) drinking beer
(4) severe disease during follow-up
(5) death of a family member during follow-up
(6) marital problems during follow-up
(7) taking care of a disabled spouse during follow-up
(8) worsening of health status during follow-up
|
Factor
|
Odds Ratio
|
95% CI
|
|
diurnal variation of symptoms
|
3.9
|
1.10 – 13.5
|
|
poor self-appreciation
|
4.6
|
1.08 – 19.3
|
|
drinking beer
|
11.7
|
1.49 – 91.1
|
|
severe disease during follow-up
|
5.3
|
1.46 – 19.3
|
|
death of a family member during follow-up
|
3.2
|
0.99 – 10.2
|
|
marital problems during follow-up
|
12.4
|
1.30 – 118
|
|
taking care of disabled spouse
|
15.2
|
1.16 – 200
|
|
worse health status during follow-up
|
4.6
|
1.07 – 19.8
|
from Table 2, page 190
where:
• Beer drinking was found to be a risk factor for chronicity, but drinking wine or spirits was not. I wonder if this may have been related to the population selected (a third did not finish required schooling and the previous occupation was "agriculture or other independent" for half).
• In the implementation I replaced drinking beer with being an alcoholic. This may be a stretch, since the volume of beer drunk per day was not given.
• Severe disease or worsening health status seem to be fairly similar concepts.
• Only 6% of the patients were in a nursing home, while 11% needed assistance to use stairs.
Additional risk factors referred to from previous studies:
(1) severe depressive symptoms
(2) history of previous depressive episodes (? history of chronic depression)
(3) long duration prior to treatment (? history of chronic depression)
