Depression and Loss

Abstract

SummaryRecent losses occurring in the two years before onset of depression in women are distinguished from past losses occurring at any time before this. Of past losses only loss of mother before 11 is associated with greater risk of depression—both among women treated by psychiatrists and among women found to be suffering from depression in a random sample of 458 women living in London. Past loss of a father or sibling before 17 (or a mother between 11 and 17), or a child or husband, is not associated with a greater chance of developing depression. However, among patients all types of past loss by death are associated with psychotic-like depressive symptoms (and their severity) and other types of past loss with neurotic-type depressive symptoms (and their severity). It is argued that these associations probably reflect direct causal links, and a socio-psychological theory to explain them is discussed.