Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 30, Issue 5, September–October 1989, Pages 420-433
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Anxiety and depression: Comorbidity, psychopathology, and social functioning

https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-440X(89)90008-4Get rights and content

Abstract

A sample of 48 former nonpsychotic inpatients was studied with respect to the overlap of depression and anxiety. Particular emphasis was placed on social dysfunctions associated with anxiety disorder as both a pure and a mixed condition. Furthermore, another question examined was whether social dysfunctions represent a risk factor for the development of a severe depression. Almost 40% of patients with a DSM-III anxiety disorder (during the last 4 weeks before follow-up) simultaneously fulfilled the criteria of a depressive disorder, mainly those of a major depression. While the course of symptomatology for both the pure anxiety and the mixed group had been rather similar over a long period of time, social dysfunctions before index admission had been generally more pronounced in patients who later developed a severe secondary depression. Social dysfunctions of patients with both disorders are not exclusively explainable by a higher severity of symptoms or the presence of particular personality features.

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    • Cited by (0)

    This research was supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation. The results are part of the Munich Follow-up Study (MFS). The MFS is a comprehensive 6- to 8-year follow-up investigation of former psychiatric inpatients and a general population sample. Principal investigators of this study are Professor Detlev von Zerssen, (Head of the Evaluation Research Unit, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry) and Professor Hans-Ulrich Wittchen.

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