Resilience in the First Episode of Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Aim: Resilience refers to the human ability to adapt to tragedy, trauma, adversity, and significant stressors. Recently, resilience has been defined as a potentially modifiable factor that can be improved through intervention. Here, we examined resilience during a 3-month period as patients experienced their first episode of major depressive disorder (MDD). We hypothesized that despite MDD, resilient people could recover from depressive states more quickly than less resilient people. Methods: Twelve patients experienced their first MDD episode and 21 healthy control individuals participated in the study. Data from the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), S-H Resilience Scale (S-HRS), and State-Trait Anxiety Index (STAI) were collected at two time points. Time 1 was the first visit after registration and Time 2 was 12 weeks later. Based on the symptoms described by the HAM-D results, the MDD group was divided into MDD-remission and MDD-residual subgroups. Results: Compared with controls, patients showed significantly lower resilience (low scores for Factor-A, Factor-B, and total S-HRS). Moreover, total SHRS scores for the MDD-remission group increased significantly from the Time 1 to Time 2, while those in MDD-residual group did not change. No significant differences in STAI scores were observed between MDD-remission and MDD-residual groups at either time point. Conclusion: This is the first report to show that patients experiencing their first episode of MDD show low resilience, and that a resilience scale might be a good index for estimating recovery from depression.