Effects of recent and past major depression and distress on self-concept and coping

The Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (J. C. Coyne & M. M. Calarco, 1995) was used to examine how primary care and psychiatric outpatients with recent or past major depression appraised their prospects and structured their lives. They were compared with nondistressed and distressed primary care patients. Both depressed groups scored higher than the nondistressed patients for Lack of Energy, Management of Burden on Others, Need to Maintain a Balance in Life, Fear of Taking Risks, Imposition of Limitations on Life, and Sense of Stigma. The distressed group fell between the depressed psychiatric and the nondistressed groups, and generally did not differ from the depressed primary care group. Past depression did not explain differences associated with more recent depression and distress. Distress entails a need to manage its effects on others, but depression in psychiatric patients may produce a more profound reorganization of self-concept, relationships, and coping.