Transcultural aspects of depressive symptomatology

The following is a presentation of the first results of a cross-cultural study of depressive symptomatology, within the framework of a larger research project which is still in progress. Southern Italian and northern Swedish depressed patients completed a self-rating scale for depression and were rated by the doctors using a subscale of the Comprehensive Psychological Rating Scale. In the doctors' ratings Italian patients scored higher for variables referring to motor retardation and hypochondriasis, and Swedish patients for variables referring to inability to feel and agitation. These findings were in line with expectations. In contrast, in the self-ratings Swedish patients scored higher for the variables weight loss, tachycardia and agitation and Italian patients for hopelessness and loss of interest and dissatisfaction. This discrepancy between results in self-ratings and doctors' ratings might reflect cultural differences either in the way patients in the two countries are able to express verbally their symptoms or in the way doctors from the two countries give weight to different symptoms. Taking the results of the two ratings together as a general measure of the severity of the depressive disorder, patients in the two places appeared to be quite alike. Since the two centers are engaged in comprehensive investigations of depressed patients, the last-mentioned finding suggests that the populations in the two centers are comparable as concerns severity.