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The Treatment of Chronic Depression

An Illustrative Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

W. A. Barker
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
D. Eccleston
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Extract

Although chronic depressive illness has not attracted a great deal of attention, it is a source of considerable psychiatric morbidity in the community and occurs in a proportion of the new long-stay patients. Prior to the introduction of specific antidepressant treatments, figures for continued affective illness were high. Lundquist (1945) observed an overall recovery rate of 80 per cent for a first attack. Perhaps the best researched study is that of Winokur who followed up for between two and 20 years 225 depressive patients. He showed that 25–30 per cent of female depressives developed a chronic state, compared with 10 per cent of male patients (Winokur and Morrison, 1973).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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References

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