Denoma,
J.M., Berlin, M.T., Fleck, M.P., & Joiner, T.E. (in press).
Double Depression in Adult Psychiatric Outpatients in Brazil: Distinct
from Major Depression? Psychiatry Research.
This study
examines whether distinct symptom profiles, patterns of comorbidity,
and suicidal symptoms uniquely characterize individuals diagnosed
with double depression (DD) by comparing Brazilians with DD to those
with major depressive disorder (MDD). One hundred forty two psychiatric
outpatients (ages 20-77 (M = 48.8, SD = 13.2); DD n=23; MDD n=119)
participated in structured diagnostic interviews and completed self-report
measures of depressive symptoms, suicidality, and family history of
mental disorders. Patients with DD exhibited a more severe symptom
profile than those with MDD, as evidenced by a higher number of depressive
symptoms and more intense suicidal ideation. They also appeared to
be qualitatively different that individuals with MDD, as evidenced
by distinct comorbidity patterns, quality of life reports, and anhedonic
features. These results may be important in understanding the phenomenology
of DD in psychiatric outpatients by informing diagnostics, psychotherapy,
and psychotherapeutic treatment of DD.
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Joiner,
Jr., T.E., Brown, J.S., Metalsky, G.I. (2003) A test of the
tripartite model's prediction of anhedonia's specificity to depression:
Patients with major depression versus patients with schizophrenia.
Psychiatry Research, 119, 243-250.
The tripartite model of depression and anxiety suggests that anhedonia
represents a relatively specific marker of depression. A strong version
of this view is that anhedonic symptoms would particularly characterize
depressed patients, even when compared to another diagnostic group
of schizophrenic patients for whom anhedonic symptoms represent a
well-studied feature. This prediction was tested among 102 VA psychiatric
inpatients (95men), ages 21-72 (M = 43.56; S.D.s 8.47), all of whom
received diagnoses of either major depression (n = 50 ) or schizophrenia
(n = 52) based on structured diagnostic interviews. As predicted,
patients with major depression scored significantly higher on the
anhedonic symptoms scale of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) than
did patients with schizophrenia. However, there was no difference
between the two groups on the BDI total score or the BDI non-anhedonic
symptoms score. Consistent with the tripartite model, anhedonic symptoms
were more related to depressive vs. schizophrenic diagnostic status,
whereas non-anhedonic depressive symptoms were not. Within the study's
limitations, results were interpreted as relatively strong support
for the validity and extension of the tripartite model.
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Joiner,
T.E. Jr., Cook, J.M., Hersen, M., & Gordon, K.H. (in press).
Double depression in older adult psychiatric outpatients: Hopelessness
as a defining feature. Journal of Affective Disorders.
Background:
There is a paucity of research on the distinguishing features of double
depression, particularly in older adults. Preliminary studies have
revealed that individuals with double depression diagnoses tend to
have more severe depression than individuals with major depression
or dysthymia alone, but few other distinctions between the diagnostic
categories have been found. Method: We examined the possibility that
hopelessness particularly characterizes double depression, by comparing
older adults with double depression, dysthymia alone, or major depression
alone, on hopelessness, as well as on internal and external locus
of control. The sample included 54 older psychiatric outpatients who
completed a battery of cognitive and symptom measures, and underwent
structured clinical interviews. Results: Double depressed patients
showed high levels of hopelessness, whereas patients with either major
depression or dysthymia alone showed more moderate levels of hopelessness.
Low internal locus of control characterized both groups with a dysthymia
diagnosis (dysthymia alone and double depression), and differentiated
them from the group with major depression alone. Limitations: The
sample size was modest, and the results may not generalize to older
adults with different demographic characteristics. Conclusions: Hopelessness
may be important in understanding the phenomenology of double depression
in older adults, and may inform diagnostics and psychotherapeutics
as well.
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Joiner,
T., Kistner, J., Stellrecht, N. & Merrill, K. (in press).
On seeing clearly and thriving: Interpersonal perspicacity as adaptive
(not depressive) realism (or where three theories meet). Journal
of Social & Clinical Psychology.
Does
realism characterize good mental health or maladjustment? In this
paper, it is argued that illusory views of social reality, even if
self-enhancing, represent a feature of mental distress (not health).
Two studies of unselected undergraduates and their same-sex roommates
were reported. In Study 1, 466 undergraduates completed a measure
of depressive symptoms, and provided global self-ratings; their roommates
provided ratings
of them. A curvilinear relation between self-other discrepancies and
depressive symptoms was detected, in which discrepancies of any kind
(even if self-enhancing) were associated with higher depressive symptoms.
Using a similar design, Study 2 (N = 143) replicated this finding
and extended it to other symptoms and to longitudinal analyses. It
is concluded that illusory views of interpersonal reality (even if
self-enhancing), far from bolstering adjustment, represent a pattern
of attitudes that typifies maladjustment.
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