Depression and activity patterns of spinal cord injured persons living in the community

The present study examined the effects of depression and injury level (paraplegics/quadriplegics) on respondents' daily activity (ADL) patterns for 53 spinal cord injured (SCI) persons living in the community. This investigation involved the administration of the Beck Depression Inventory, the Clinical Depression Measure, the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List, and the Activity Pattern Indicators. The first issue of interest was the incidence of clinical depression in this community-based sample. Evidence of clinical depression was found in only 15% of the sample, with 45% of respondents showing evidence of mild depression. A second issue concerned the independent and/or interactive effects of depression and injury levels across several different types of ADL. Independent depression effects were found for personal activities, such that mildly depressed respondents reported fewer personal activities than nondepressed individuals. Independent injury level effects were found for overall frequency of activities, with quadriplegics achieving lower scores than paraplegics. Interactive effects were obtained between depression and injury level for work and travel. For each of these activities, similar levels were found for nondepressed quadriplegic, mildly depressed quadriplegic, and mildly depressed paraplegic respondents, all of whom were less active than nondepressed paraplegics. These results suggest that for some activities depression may play as important a role in long-term rehabilitation as degree of disability.