Social conditions and personality of depressed patients at first admittance and 12 months later

Abstract

The object of the present survey was to examine whether the health conditions, social contacts, and personality traits of depressed patients were stable or had altered 12 months after their first admittance for depression. A cohort consisting of 31 first-admittance depressed patients from the catchment area of the Psychiatric Hospital in Aarhus were examined at admittance and 12 months later. The diagnostic assessment was carried out with the Present State Examination, 10th version; the social conditions were examined with a questionnaire on social class affiliation and selected living conditions, and the personality assessment was carried out using the questionnaire Karolinska Scales of Personality. The follow-up was carried out by mailing a letter with the two questionnaires exactly 12 months after admission. The examination yielded the following results: The presence of simultaneous anxiety appears to be quite constant. The patient group as such has become less isolated, but the total number of people ...