ArticleEpidemiology and psychiatric sciences2015
Heterogeneity in the prognosis of major depression: from the common cold to a highly debilitating and recurrent illness.
Article in Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Generalizability of Randomized Controlled Trials of Self-Guided Internet-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depressive Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Pooled it
- Risk factors for relapse and recurrence of depression in adults and how they operate: A four-phase systematic review and meta-synthesis.Clinical psychology review · 2018Pooled it
- Do Sleep Disturbances Improve Following Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Adolescent Depression?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Double trouble: Do symptom severity and duration interact to predicting treatment outcomes in adolescent depression?Behaviour research and therapy · 2020Trial
- Anxiety and Depression are Associated with More Distorted Thinking on Social Media: A Longitudinal Multi-Method Study.Cognitive therapy and research · 2025Article
- Long-term trajectories of depressive symptoms by military affiliation.SSM - population health · 2025Article
- A Clinical-Metabolic Prediction Model for Suicidal Behaviors Risk Stratification in First-Admission Major Depressive Disorder: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Article
- Biomarkers of Suicidal Ideation in Depression: Insights From VMHC Analysis and Machine Learning.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Article
- Identifying active ingredients in cognitive-behavioral therapies: What if we didn't?Behaviour research and therapy · 2023Article
- A compelling need to empirically validate bipolar depression.International journal of bipolar disorders · 2023Article
- Sociodemographics and Transdiagnostic Mental Health Symptoms in SOCIAL (Studies of Online Cohorts for Internalizing Symptoms and Language) I and II: Cross-sectional Survey and Botometer Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
- Mapping network connectivity between internet addiction and residual depressive symptoms in patients with depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Heterogeneity in major depression and its melancholic and atypical specifiers: a secondary analysis of STAR*D.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Individual Differences in the Stability and Change of Childhood Depression: A Growth Mixture Model With Structured Residuals.Child development · 2021Article
- The significance of anxiety symptoms in predicting psychosocial functioning across borderline personality traits.PloS one · 2021Article
- A prognostic index for long-term outcome after successful acute phase cognitive therapy and interpersonal psychotherapy for major depressive disorder.Depression and anxiety · 2019Article
- Under-diagnosis of mood disorders in Canada.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2017Article
- Clinical use of the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2015Article
- Major depressive disorder: reification and (maybe) rheostasis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Two different and seemingly competing views on the diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) exist. The first is that the diagnosis conflates adaptive sadness reactions with pathological states of depressed mood and that MDD is overdiagnosed and overtreated. The second is that MDD is an underdiagnosed and undertreated disorder, and one that is best characterised by a severe, chronic, recurrent or treatment-resistant course. Existing research suggests that both views are valid and merit being integrated. Anywhere from 30 to 50% of individuals will meet criteria for MDD at some point in their life. About half of these episodes are of brief duration and unlikely to recur. However, a remaining half is either chronic or recurrent. Data on the outpatient diagnosis of depression support the view that depression is simultaneously underdiagnosed and undertreated as well as overdiagnosed and overtreated. About one-third of the patients who meet criteria for MDD and receive placebos experience clinically significant and long-lasting improvement. Many other patients, however, are unresponsive to one or multiple active treatments. Thus, the diagnosis of MDD likely applies to individuals who are experiencing either normal periods of sadness or single-episode afflictions that are mild, unlikely to recur, and are placebo responsive, as well as to individuals with more severe clinical profiles. More research is needed that can help ascertain what contextual or biopsychological variables help distinguish between individuals who may be experiencing adaptive states of negative affect and those who experience severe, chronic, recurrent or treatment-resistant depressions.
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