Depression in family practice: long-term prognosis and somatic complaints

Somatic pain, functional, and anxiety complaints of 154 depressed patients were followed during the course of their initial depression and were found to parallel the depression: these complaints increased in number just prior to diagnosis of depression and decreased to normal levels after one year's treatment of the depression. Persistence of these types of somatic symptoms after one year's treatment predicted eventual chronicity of the depression. Older patients were also more likely to develop chronic depressions, and there was some indication that those individuals who had an initial remission of a depression followed by a second depression which then became chronic had longer first depressions.