Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T03:18:22.543Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Loss, humiliation and entrapment among women developing depression: a patient and non-patient comparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

G. W. Brown ,
T. O. Harris  and
C. Hepworth
G. W. Brown*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway, University of London
T. O. Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway, University of London
C. Hepworth
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway, University of London
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor George W. Brown, Department of Social Policy and Social Science, Royal Holloway, University of London, 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

This paper is part of a series dealing with the role of life events in the onset of depressive disorders. Women who developed depression in a general population sample in Islington in North London are contrasted with a National Health Service-treated series of depressed patients in the same area. Findings among the latter confirm the importance of a severely threatening provoking event for onset among the majority of depressed women patients. The results for the two series are similar except for a small subgroup of patients characterized by a melancholic/psychotic condition with a prior episode.

The severe events of importance have been recognized for some time by the traditional ratings of the Life Events and Difficulty Schedule (LEDS). However, the full descriptive material collected by the LEDS has been used to develop a new refined measure reflecting the likelihood of feelings of humiliation and being trapped following a severely threatening event, in addition to existing measures of loss or danger. The experience of humiliation and entrapment was important in provoking depression in both the patient and non-patient series. It proved to be associated with a far greater risk of depression than the experience of loss or danger without humiliation or entrapment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 7 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alnaes, R. & Torgersen, S. (1991). Personality and personality disorder among patients with various affective disorders. Journal of Personality Disorders 5, 107–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebbington, P. E., Brugha, T., MacCarthy, B., Potter, J., Sturt, E., Wykes, T., Katz, R. & McGuffin, P. (1988). The Camberwell Collaborative Study I. Depressed probands: adversity and the form of depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 152, 754–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, E. (1964). The Revolution in Psychiatry. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, Experimental and Theoretical Aspects. Staples Press: London.Google Scholar
Bibring, E. (1953). Mechanisms of Depression. In Affective Disorders: Psychoanalytic Contributions to their Study (ed. Greenacre, P.), pp. 13–48. International Universities Press: New York.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. (1989). Life events and measurement. In Life Events and Illness (ed. Brown, G. W. and Harris, T.), pp. 3–46. Guilford Press: New York.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. (1993). Life events and affective disorder: replications and limitations. Psychosomatic Medicine 55, 248–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1978). Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. Tavistock Publications: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1986). Establishing causal links: the Bedford College Studies of Depression. In Life Events and Psychiatric Disorders (ed. Katschnig, H.), pp. 107–187. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1989). Life Events & Illness. Guilford Press: New York.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Sklair, F., Harris, T. O. & Birley, J. L. T. (1973). Life events and psychiatric disorders: 1. Some methodological issues. Psychological Medicine 3, 74–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Ni Brolchain, M. & Harris, T. O. (1975). Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology 9, 225–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Craig, T. K. J. & Harris, T. O. (1985). Depression: disease or distress? Some epidemiological considerations. British Journal of Psychiatry 147, 612–622.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Bifulco, A. & Harris, T. O. (1987). Life events, vulnerability and onset of depression: some refinements. British Journal of Psychiatry 150, 30–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Adler, Z. & Bifulco, A. (1988). Life events, difficulties and recovery from chronic depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 152, 487–498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Lemyre, L. & Bifulco, A. (1992). Social factors and recovery from anxiety and depressive disorders: a test of the specificity hypothesis. British Journal of Psychiatry 161, 44–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Harris, T. O. & Hepworth, C. (1994) Life events and ‘endogenous’ depression: a puzzle re-examined. Archives of General Psychiatry 51, 525–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, C., Surtees, P. G. & Sashidharan, S. D. (1983). Comparison of research diagnostic systems in an Edinburgh community sample. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 247–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlay-Jones, R., Brown, G. W., Duncan-Jones, P., Harris, T. O., Murphy, E. & Prudo, R. (1980). Depression and anxiety in the community. Psychological Medicine 10, 445–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlay-Jones, R. & Brown, G. W. (1981). Types of stressful life event and the onset of anxiety and depressive disorders. Psychological Medicine 11, 803–815.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fredin, L. (1982). Psychosocial Aspects of Depression: No Way Out? Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar
Gilbert, P. (1989). Human Nature and Suffering. Lawrence Erlbaum: Hove.Google Scholar
Gilbert, P. (1992). Depression: The Evolution of Powerlessness. Lawrence Erlbaum: Hove.Google Scholar
Hammen, C. (1988). Depression and cognition about personal stressful life events. In Cognitive Processes in Depression (ed. Alloy, L. B.), pp. 77–108. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Harris, T. O. & Brown, G. W. (1994) Interpersonal style and onset of depression: An NHS patient series. (Manuscript)Google Scholar
Harris, T. O., Brown, G. W., Craig, T. J. K., Hepworth, C. & Robinson, R. (1994). Past loss and symptom morphology in depression: The mediating role of childhood adversity and current personality. (Manuscript)Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1966). Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Melges, F. T. & Bowlby, J. (1969). Types of hopelessness in psychopathological process. Archives of General Psychiatry 20, 690–699.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monroe, S. M. & Depue, R. A. (1991). Life stress and depression. In Psychosocial Aspects of Depression (ed. Becker, J. and Kleinman, A.), pp. 101–130. Lawrence Erlbaum: New Jersey.Google ScholarPubMed
Norušis, M. (1990). SPSS/PC+ Advanced Statistics 4.0. SPSS Inc.: Chicago.Google Scholar
Oatley, K. & Bolton, W. (1985). A social theory of depression in reaction to life events. Psychological Review 92, 372–388.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parkes, C. M. (1971). Psycho-social transitions: a field for study. Social Science and Medicine 5, 101–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S. & Cooper, Z. (1992). Life events and social stress. In Handbook of Affective Disorders (2nd edn.) (ed. Paykel, E. S.), pp. 149–170. Churchill Livingstone: Endinburgh.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Myers, J. K., Dienelt, M. N., Klerman, G. L., Lindenthal, J. J. & Pepper, M. P. (1969). Life events and depression: a controlled study. Archives of General Psychiatry 21, 753–760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Post, R. M. (1990). Sensitization and kindling perspectives on the course of affective illness: toward a new treatment with the anticonvulsant carbamazepine. Pharmacopsychiatry 12, 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, J. S. (1988). Alternative channels for negotiating asymmetry in social relationships. In Social Fabrics of the Mind (ed. Chance, M. R. A.), pp. 157–195. Lawrence Erlbaum: London.Google Scholar
Price, J. S. & Sloman, L. (1987). Depression as a yielding behaviour: an animal model based on Schjelderup-Ebbe's pecking order. Ethology and Sociobiology 8, 85–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Price, J., Sloman, L., Gardner, R. Jr, Gilbert, P. & Rohde, P. (1994). The social competition hypothesis of depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 164, 309–315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quinton, D., Rutter, M. & Rowlands, O. (1976). An evaluation of an interview assessment of marriage. Psychological Medicine 6, 577–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On Depression, Development and Death. W. H. Freeman: San Francisco.Google Scholar
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J. & Robins, E. (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria: rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry 35, 773–782.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Unger, R. M. (1984). Passion: An Essay on Personality. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorious, N. (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms: an Instruction Manual for the Present State Examination and CATEGO Program. Cambridge University Press: England.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Nixon, J. M., Mann, S. A. & Leff, J. P. (1977). Reliability of the PSE (ninth edition) used in a population study. Psychological Medicine 7, 505–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Babor, T., Brugha, T., Burke, J., Cooper, J. E., Giel, R., Jablensky, A., Regier, D. & Sartorius, N. (1990). SCAN. Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry 47, 589–593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed