Analogues of Depression: From the Perspective of the Continuity of Depression

Abstract

This study investigated aspects of analogues of depression. Cluster analysis and a symptoms approach were used to identify characteristics of analogues of depression. Patients with major depressive disorder provided the seed points for the depressed cluster, and non-distressed university students provided the seed points for the non-depressed cluster. The results showed that the non-depressed cluster included all the mild-depression subjects and part of the moderate-depression subjects of the distressed university students. On the other hand, the depressed cluster included other moderate-depression subjects and all the severe-depression subjects. These results indicate that the symptoms of mild depression among distressed university students have little in common with severe clinical depression. However there was a sequence of continuity between the symptoms of severe-depression subjects of the distressed university students and patients with severe clinical depression.View full abstract