Direct and indirect influences of childhood abuse on depression symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder.

Yumi Hayashi,Shigeto Yamawaki,Makoto Kobayakawa,Koki Takagaki,Takeshi Inoue,Hajime Tanabe,Shigeru Toki,Yasumasa Okamoto,Go Okada

doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0636-1

Yumi Hayashi, Shigeto Yamawaki + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-015-0636-1

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Abstract

BackgroundIt is known that the onset, progression, and prognosis of major depressive disorder are affected by interactions between a number of factors. This study investigated how childhood abuse, personality, and stress of life events were associated with symptoms of depression in depressed people.MethodsPatients with major depressive disorder (N = 113, 58 women and 55 men) completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Neuroticism Extroversion Openness Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), the Child Abuse and Trauma Scale (CATS), and the Life Experiences Survey (LES), which are self-report scales. Results were analyzed with correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), by using SPSS AMOS 21.0.ResultsChildhood abuse directly predicted the severity of depression and indirectly predicted the severity of depression through the mediation of personality. Negative life change score of the LES was affected by childhood abuse, however it did not predict the severity of depression.ConclusionsThis study is the first to report a relationship between childhood abuse, personality, adulthood life stresses and the severity of depression in depressed patients. Childhood abuse directly and indirectly predicted the severity of depression. These results suggest the need for clinicians to be receptive to the possibility of childhood abuse in patients suffering from depression.SEM is a procedure used for hypothesis modeling and not for causal modeling. Therefore, the possibility of developing more appropriate models that include other variables cannot be excluded.

Highlights

It is known that the onset, progression, and prognosis of major depressive disorder are affected by interactions between a number of factors
The results indicated that the model fit was adequate (χ2 (23) = 28.83, p =0.19, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.98, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05; Fig. 2)
The negative life change score of the Life Experiences Survey (LES) was affected by childhood abuse; the negative life change score of the LES did not predict the severity of depression

Summary

Introduction

It is known that the onset, progression, and prognosis of major depressive disorder are affected by interactions between a number of factors. This study investigated how childhood abuse, personality, and stress of life events were associated with symptoms of depression in depressed people. The onset, progression, and prognosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) are affected by many factors, including genes, environment and personality. Environmental factors related to depression are known to include maltreatment, parenting, recent life stress, and poverty. Among these environmental factors, stressful life events and childhood abuse are considered to be critical for the development of depression [1,2,3]. Childhood abuse is known to lead to chronic MDD, lower age of MDD onset [10], decreased responses to treatment for MDD [11, 12], and increased rate of suicide while being treated for MDD [6, 13]

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