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Is atypical depression a moderate severity depression? A 536-case study
1Department of Psychiatry, Morgagni Public Hospital, Forlì, Italy. f.benazzi@fo.nettuno.it
Objective:
To determine if atypical depression is less common among outpatients with severe depression than among those with nonsevere depression.
Design:
Case series.
Setting:
Private practice.
Patients:
Five hundred and thirty-six consecutive outpatients presenting for treatment of unipolar or bipolar II depression.
Outcome Measures:
Prevalence of atypical depression among patients with severe depression (Global Assessment of Functioning Scale [GAF] score of 50 or less) and nonsevere depression.
Results:
There was no significant difference in the prevalence of atypical depression between patients with severe and nonsevere depression.
Conclusions:
Results do not support previous studies that atypical depression is usually of moderate severity. A rating scale like the GAF, which assesses both symptom severity and impairment of functioning, may give a more complete assessment of depression severity than a symptoms rating scale (used in previous studies), which does not cover atypical features and does not assess functioning.