Self-reported feelings in clinical depression: an analysis of published data

A consideration of about 270 published papers concerned with psychological correlates of clinical depression produced five sets of data which satisfied the following criteria: (i) they were based upon responses to individual self-report items, expressed in terms of patients' questionnaire self-ratings or researchers' ratings of interview responses, and (ii) they involved both depressed and non-depressed psychiatric patients. Replicated findings were: (i) both neurotic and non-neurotic depressives were characterized by sadness-related feelings and reduced pleasure, (ii) non-neurotic depressives were characterized by a willingness to contemplate dying, and (iii) some dysfunctions were prominent in both depressed and non-depressed psychiatric patients; these were mental slowness, tension-nervousness, concentration difficulties and irritability. Findings based on only one study each were: (i) sadness-related feelings were relatively persistent in depressives, and (ii) non-neurotic depressives were characterized by feelings of unworthiness, reduced appetite, weight loss and unwarranted fatigue. The differentiating power of items seemed to be related to their simplicity, generality, severity and indications of frequency. These conclusions, although largely post hoc, are precise enough to provide hypotheses which could be tested in prospective empirical studies.