Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T03:13:18.778Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Classification of Depressions: A Review of Contemporary Confusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

R. E. Kendell
R. E. Kendell*
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh EH10 5HF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the last fifty years, and particularly the last twenty, innumerable different classifications of depressive illness have been proposed, and several disputes are smouldering away between the protagonists of rival schools. Much of this is too well known to need, or bear, repetition. But the conflicting claims and proposals are now so numerous, and methodological problems loom so large, that those who are not intimately involved have increasing difficulty in understanding what is going on; while those who are involved are mostly too intent on developing and promoting their own particular schema to review the overall situation in any broader context. This article is an attempt to describe the main elements in a confusing situation, to outline the important problems, and to indicate the areas of agreement that are beginning to emerge, without advocating any particular solution.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 129 , Issue 1 , July 1976 , pp. 15 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

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

Angst, J. (1966) Zur Ätiologie und Nosologic endogener dcpressivcr Psychosen. Berlin: Springer Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angst, J. & Perris, C. (1968) Zur Nosologic endogener Depressionen: Vergleich der Ergebnisse zweier Untersuchungen. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologic, 210, 373–86.Google Scholar
Bunder, M. G. (1966) The pragmatic classification of depression. American Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 259–69.Google Scholar
Bowman, K. & Rose, M. (1951) A criticism of the terms ‘psychosis’, ‘psychoneurosis’ and ‘neurosis’. American Journal of Psychiatry, 108, 161–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carney, M. W. P., Roth, M. & Garsede, R. F. (1965) The diagnosis of depressive syndromes and the prediction of ECT response. British Journal of Psychiatry, 111, 659–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copeland, J. R. M. (1975) The development of depressive illness and its relationship to diagnosis. M.D. thesis, University of Cambridge. [Alternatively: Syndromes of Depression and Distress: A Study of Traditional and Mathematical Classifications and Their Outcome. New York: John Wiley & Sons. In press.]Google Scholar
Costello, C. G. (1970) Classification and psychopathology. In Symptoms of Psychopathology (ed. Costello, C. G.), pp. 1–26. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Everitt, B. S., Gourlay, A. J. & Kendell, R. E. (1971) An attempt at validation of traditional psychiatric syndromes by cluster analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 399–412.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1970) The classification of depressive illnesses. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 241–50.Google Scholar
Feighner, J. P., Robins, E., Guze, S. B., Woodruff, R. A., winokur, G. & Muñoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57–63.Google Scholar
Foulds, G. A. (1973) The relationship between the depressive illnesses. British Journal of Psychiatry, 123, 531–3.Google Scholar
Foulds, G. A. & Bedford, A. (1975) Hierarchy of classes of personal illness. Psychological Medicine, 5, 181–92.Google Scholar
Frank, G. (1975) Psychiatric Diagnosis: a Review of Research. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Gurney, C., Roth, M., Garside, R. F., Kerr, T. A. & shapira, K. (1972) Studies in the classification of affective disorders. The relationship between anxiety states and depressive illnesses. II. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 162–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. (1967) Development of a rating scale for primary depressive illness. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 6, 278–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. & White, J. M. (1959) Clinical syndromes in depressive states. Journal of Mental Science, 105, 985–98.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. E. (1968) The Classification of Depressive Illnesses. Maudsley Monograph No. 18. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. E. (1969) The continuum model of depressive illness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 62, 335–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Kendell, R. E. & Gourlay, J. (1970) The clinical distinction between psychotic and neurotic depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 257–60.Google Scholar
Kielholz, P. (1972) Diagnostic aspects in the treatment of depression. In Depressive Illness: Diagnosis, Assessment, Treatment (ed. Kielholz, P.), pp. 11–12. Berne: Hans Huber.Google Scholar
Kiloh, L. G., Andrews, G., Neilson, M. & Bianchi, G. N. (1972) The relationship of the syndromes called endogenous and neurotic depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 183–96.Google Scholar
Leonhard, K. (1959) Aufteilung der Endogenen Psychosen. 2nd Ed., Berlin.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J. (1934) Melancholia: a clinical survey of depressive states. Journal of Mental Science, 80, 277–378.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J. (1938) States of depression: their clinical and aetiological differentiation. British Medical Journal, ii, 875–8.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. J. (1971) Endogenous and exogenous: a useful dichotomy? Psychological Medicine, 1, 191–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mendels, J. & Cochrane, C. (1968) The nosology of depression: the endogenous-reactive concept. American Journal of Psychiatry, 124, May Suppl., pp 1–11.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E., Hollister, L. E., Johnson, M. & pennington, V. (1966) Nosology of depression and differential response to drugs. Journal of the American Medical Association, 195, 946–50.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. (1971) Classification of depressed patients: a cluster analysis derived grouping. British Journal of Psychiatry, 118, 275–88.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. (1972) Depressive typologies and response to amitriptyline. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 147–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S. (1974) Recent life events and clinical depression. In Life Stress and Illness (ed. Gunderson, E. K. E. and Rahe, R. H.), pp 134–63. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. Klerman, G. L. & Prusoff, B. A. (1974) Prognosis of depression and the endogenous-neurotic distinction. Psychological Medicine, 4, 57–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perris, C. (1966) a survey of bipolar and unipolar recurrent depressive psychoses. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplement 194.Google Scholar
Pilowsky, I., Levtne, S. & Bolton, D. M. (1969) The classification of depression by numerical taxonomy. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 937–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollitt, J. D. (1965) Suggestions for a physiological classification of depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 111, 489–95.Google Scholar
Post, F. (1962) The Significance of Affective Symptoms in Old Age. Maudsley Monograph No. 10. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Post, F. (1972) The management and nature of depressive illnesses in late life: a follow through study. British Journal of Psychiatry, 121, 393–404.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prien, R. F., Klett, J. & Caffey, E. M. (1974) Lithium carbonate and imipramine in prevention of depressive episodes. Archives, of General Psychiatry, 29, 420–5.Google Scholar
Robins, E., Muñoz, R. A., Martin, S. & Gentry, K. A. (1972) Primary and secondary affective disorders. In Disorders of Mood (ed. Zubin, J. and Freyhan, F. A.), pp 33–45. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, S. H. (1968) The involutional depressive syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 124, May Suppl., pp 21–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenthal, S. H. & Klerman, G. L. (1966) Content and consistency in the endogenous depressive pattern. British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 471–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rümke, H. C. (1960) Psychiatric, Vol. 2. Amsterdam: Scheltema en Holkema.Google Scholar
Stenstedt, A. (1959) Involutional melancholia: an etiologic, clinical and social study of endogenous depression in later life, with special reference to genetic factors. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, Supplement 127.Google ScholarPubMed
Torgerson, W. S. (1968) Multidimensional representation in similarity structures. In Classification in Psychiatry and Psychopathology (eds. Katz, M. M., Cole, J. O. and Barton, W. E.). Public Health Service Publication No. 1584, pp 212–20. Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Van Praag, H. M., Ulleman, A. M. & Spitz, J. C. (1965) The vital syndrome interview. Psychiatria, Neurologia, Neurochirurgia, 68, 329–46.Google Scholar
Winokur, G. (1974) The division of depressive illness into depression spectrum disease and pure depressive disease. International Pharmacopsychiatry, 9, 5–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winokur, G. Cadoret, R., Baker, M. & Dorzab, J. (1975) Depression spectrum disease versus pure depressive disease. British Journal of Psychiatry, 127, 75–7.Google Scholar
Zilboorg, G. (1941) A History of Medical Psychology. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.