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Updated: Jun 4, 2025

Animal Models of Depression - Chronic Despair Model CDM
Published on: September 23, 2021
The phenomenon of despair in patients with depression
Paraskevi Mavrogiorgou1, Leonard Fischer1, Martin Bürgy2
1Dept. of Psychiatry, LWL University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
Objective:
Despair is a common feature of depressive disorders. The aim was to characterize the cognitive-affective phenomenon of despair in patients with a depressive disorder by means of the newly developed Bochum-Stuttgart Despair Scale (BSVS) in comparison to the Northwestern Ego Integrity Scale (NEIS).
Methods:
A total of 33 depressed patients and 33 age- and gender-matched healthy subjects were studied with respect to despair but also with respect to biographical and psychometric characteristics such as depressiveness, hopelessness, fear of finality and suicidality.
Results:
Depressed patients were significantly more despondent than healthy subjects in both BSVS-Cognitive and BSVS-Emotional, and this was also reflected in the NEIS-Despair subscale.
Conclusion:
Despair of depressed patients is probably constituted by different factors than the despair of mentally healthy individuals.
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