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Depression: Distress or Disease? Some Epidemiological Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

George W. Brown ,
Tom K. J. Craig  and
Tirril O. Harris
George W. Brown*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, (University of London), 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
Tom K. J. Craig
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, (University of London), 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
Tirril O. Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, (University of London), 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA
*
∗ Correspondence
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Abstract

Surveys using clinical-type interviews have documented a high rate of depression among working-class women, and this is discussed in the light of a recent survey in an inner-city area. While women with caseness of depression contacting a psychiatrist did not differ in number of core depressive symptoms from those who did, they did in certain characteristics that would make them worrying for a general practitioner to deal with. It is concluded that there is a considerable overlap in the severity of depressive conditions between those seen by psychiatrists and those defined as cases in population surveys; any differences that do exist may relate more to the way symptoms are expressed than to the severity of the depressive disorder as such.

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Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 147 , Issue 6 , December 1985 , pp. 612 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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