Subtypes of depression: socially dependent and autonomous
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Abstract
Aaron Beck's criteria for subtypes of depression was used in the present study to separate psychiatric patients into two groups: socially dependent and autonomous. Male and female state mental hospital inpatients (N = 86) meeting DSM-III-R criteria for depression alone or depression with concurrent personality disorder were compared to each other in a retrospective design. As hypothesized, anxious depression was correlated positively with social dependency and negatively with autonomy. No other findings were statistically significant. Additionally, patients with dual diagnoses of depression concurrent with personality disorder (N = 42) were separated into socially dependent and autonomous groups and compared across study hypothesis variables. No findings were statistically significant. Depressed patients may be differentiated by Beck's criteria for depressive episode symptomatology and anxious depression.