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Background: We conducted the present study to evaluate the impact of stressful events on the onset of depressive disorders in a Spanish clinical sample, compared to a control group matched for age, sex, civil status and social class. We compared our results with those of other studies carried out with samples that were both clinically and culturally similar to ours., Method: Fifty depressed patients that were diagnosed with a depressive episode in the 6 months prior to the interview and 50 healthy controls were included in the study. Both groups were compared on the "Life Events and Difficulties Schedule" (LEDS)., Results: Of the depressive patients, 68 % compared to only 18 % of the control individuals experienced at least one provoking agent in the 12 months prior to the onset of the symptoms. The risk of developing a depressive disorder was 9.7 % greater in subjects exposed to such provoking agents. Chronic difficulties are equally important to the genesis of depressive disorders as severe life events. No significant differences were seen between the two diagnostic subgroups of depressed patients in the accumulation of severe events, major difficulties or provoking agents., Conclusion: The results support the view that stress is a major factor in the aetiology of depressive disorders. The amount of stress suffered by the patients, however, was less than that found in our healthy sample. Important issues about the model of interaction between stress and depression are discussed.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the style of rearing in a sample of depressive patients and compare it with a control group of normal subjects of similar age, sex, and civil status. The hypothesis to verify was that among the depressives the style of rearing is characterised by a deficit in Emotional Warmth and an excess of Rejection and Protection. We analysed whether the severity of the depression - Major Depressive Disorders versus Depressive Disorders Not Otherwise Specified - was associated with differences in the perceived rearing conditions., Design: It was an observational study of the case/control type. There were 50 patients, whose first depressive episode (DSM-III-R criteria) began in the 6 months prior to the interview. They were entered sequentially into the study sample. The control group comprised 50 subjects with no depressive pathology, matched by age, sex, and social class., Method: The EMBU questionnaire was applied to all the subjects., Results: Only 35% of all depressive patients, as against 64% of the controls, had experienced an optimum upbringing. It is shown that a deficit in Emotional Warmth and a high level of Rejection constitute parental attitudes that are significantly more frequent among depressives than among subjects with no psychiatric pathology. Type of depression or degree of intimacy did not influence the scores obtained in the subscales of the EMBU. Depressives pertaining to lower social classes tended to score higher in Overprotection and Rejection scales.