Sense of coherence and psychiatric morbidity in terms of anxiety and depression in patients with major depression before and after electric convulsive treatment

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The specific aim of this study was to explore if the Sense of Coherence (SOC) Scale reflects and overlaps with standardized psychiatric assessments of depression and anxiety leading to the main hypothesis that the degree of depression decreases while the SOC scores remain stable. Fifteen patients with a diagnosis of major depression according to Axis I in DSM-IV and planned electric convulsive treatment (ECT) participated in the study. The clinician-rated instruments, Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and Global Assessment of Function (GAF), and the self-assessment instruments such as SOC and the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale-Self Rating Scale for Affective Syndromes (CPRS-S-A) were used before and after the treatment. The patients showed statistically significant improvements in clinician-rated depression (p < 0.001) and functional status (p < 0.001), and in self-rated anxiety (p = 0.001) and depression (p = 0.003). There was no significant improvement in SOC (p = 0.213). No significant correlations were found between the SOC scores and any of the measures except for GAF after treatment (r = 0.57, p = 0.039); the lower the SOC scores the greater was the functional dysfunction. In conclusion, the SOC Scale seems not to be a measure of psychopathology in terms of depression or anxiety merely.