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IN an earlier part of a comprehensive evaluation of depression in general medical inpatients, 1,2 we found that those with lower socioeconomic status scored higher than others on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). 3 A basic question was raised: how are social variables, especially class, related to the frequency of depressive illness in medical patients? We also wished to evaluate conventional methods (clinical examination and standard rating scales) for diagnosing depression—what are the class variations? Although interest in the sociology of mental illness has increased in the last 15 years, most studies focus on schizophrenia; also, a survey of the literature reveals a paucity of data concerning relationships between demographic characteristics and the frequency of depression among general medical inpatients. Age.—It has been commonly believed that the frequency of depression in psychiatric patients increases with age. Gutheil 4 states that older people are more easily

Excerpt Because depression may exist concurrently with medical illness, detecting those patients whose emotional distress requires special attention is a complicated task for both internists and ps...

Excerpt Since the days of hippocrates, depression has been recognized as a distinctive psychobiologic mode. Engel (1) said that depression, developmentally, is the latter of two basic biologic reac...