OBJECTIVES This research tests hypotheses from equity theory and social integration theory regarding the effect of social relationships on depressive symptoms. METHODS The data are based on a representative sample of people aged 60 and older from southern Brazil. The baseline sample consists of 871 subjects interviewed in 1995. Among those baseline subjects, 551 responded in 1999. Cross-secti...

OBJECTIVE We aimed to identify depressive symptom profiles that indicated the presence of depressive disorder and present optimal cut-off sub-scores for depressive symptom profiles for detecting depressive disorder in elderly subjects with chronic physical diseases including diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/asthma, and coronary artery disease, using the Patient Health Questionnai...

There is limited data on the prevalence of depression in HIV and AIDS patients in Sub-Saharan Africa and little resources have been allocated to address this issue. Depression affects patient adherence to treatment and predisposes patients to resistance which poses a public health threat. It also affects quality of life and productivity of patients. From August 2008 to March 2009, 731 patient a...

BACKGROUND Prior studies suggest that certain types of personality are at higher risk for developing depressive disorders. This study examined the relationship between old age depressive symptoms and two middle-age personality dimensions, neuroticism and extraversion. METHOD The present study is part of the Finnish Twin Study on Aging, where altogether 409 female twins who had completed the E...

background Sleep disturbances are thought to increase the risk of developing depressive and anxiety disorders. However, evidence up until now is not conclusive. objective To determine associations between insomnia and sleep duration at baseline and the incidence of depressive and anxiety disorder during two year follow-up in a sample free of lifetime depressive and anxiety disorders at baseline...

Depressive symptoms reflect depressed mood over a relatively short period of time and are measured using symptom checklists such as the SCL-90. There is some evidence that depressive symptoms are associated with major depression (MD), which is a clinically diagnosed psychiatric illness. Genetic studies of depressive symptomatology suggest a role for genetic factors as well as unique environment...

BACKGROUND The treatment of older patients with schizophrenia and depressive symptoms poses many challenges for clinicians. Current classifications of depressive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia include: Major Depressive Episodes that occur in patients with schizophrenia and are not classified as schizoaffective disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, and Schizophrenia with subsyndromal depr...

BACKGROUND Knowledge about the prevalence of depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students and its related factors is rather limited. Understanding the correlates of depressive symptoms and the roles that positive psychological variables play in depressive symptoms is of vital importance for future interventions. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of depre...

Background: This study examined whether mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms are associated with increased highsensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels in apparently healthy individuals at high risk for coronary artery disease. We investigated in individuals whether: (1) current depressive symptoms were associated with increased hsCRP and IL-6 levels; (2) persisten...

BACKGROUND Few studies have assessed whether treatment of acute cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) patients contributes to depression. METHODS Using an administrative database, we assessed patients for whom the diagnosis was unspecified injuries of cervical spinal cord (International Classification of Diseases and Injuries-10th (ICD-10) code; S14.1). We categorized patients with codes for depr...