Definitions of depression: concordance and prediction of outcome

Abstract

Three methods of diagnosing and subdividing depressive illness were compared in terms of their ability to predict outcome. The Catego class D+ selected patients who continued to suffer from episodes of psychotic depression. The Research Diagnostic Criteria selected patients with schizoaffective depressions, whose outcome was completely different from that of patients with major depressive disorder. DSM-III [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III] had advantages over the other systems, since it divided depression into 3 subtypes that differ from each other and from schizophrenia. Patients with a DSM-III diagnosis of mood-incongruent psychotic depression had persistent schizophrenic psychopathology, but their outcome differed from that of both schizophrenic and manic-depressive patients.