Citation

Kühner C. Nervenarzt, Der 2000; 71(5): 393-400.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s001150050574

PMID

10846715

Abstract

The present study examines episode characteristics in unipolar psychotic depression. From a sample of unipolar endogenous depressed inpatients, patients with a psychotic index episode (n = 19) were compared to nonpsychotic patients (n = 86) with regard to case history, characteristics of the inpatient episode, residual symptoms at discharge from hospital and course of illness up to seven months after discharge. Psychotic depressed patients displayed more severe observer-rated depressive symptoms at admission and were more likely to have attempted suicide prior to admission. In the post-discharge short-term course of depression, these patients showed a more pronounced symptom homogeneity in the extreme ranges, which occurred by stable remissions or by prolonged symptomatology in need of treatment. These findings, together with the observation of higher stabilities of symptom scores in the psychotically depressed, emphasize the prognostic significance of symptomatology at discharge to the post-discharge episode course in these patients.

Language: de

Keywords

Humans; Adult; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Diagnosis, Differential; Treatment Outcome; Prognosis; Inpatients; Recurrence; Sampling Studies; Disease Progression; Acute Disease; Depression/*complications/diagnosis; Depressive Disorder, Major/diagnosis/psychology; Depressive Disorder/classification/complications/*diagnosis/*psychology; Psychotic Disorders/*diagnosis/etiology/*psychology