A strong association is believed to exist between stressful life events and the development of depressive disorders. Childhood adverse experiences contribute to person's vulnerability to such disorders.

The study of the complex interplay between child abuse, stressful life events and the development of depression.

To study the effect of type and severity of child abuse and magnitude of pre-onset stress on the severity and duration of adulthood depression.

Seventy-five patients with depressive disorders not having a comorbid mental illness were studied using Social Readjustment Rating scale (SRRS) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ).

The mean age of the patients was 34.96 ± 12.32 years, 69.3% of patients were females, duration of the illness ranged from 2–288 weeks with a mean of 30.94 ± 54.61 and 36% of the sample had severe depression. There was a statistically significant relationship between urban residence and magnitude of stress (P = 0.049), married patients suffered less severe depression than unmarried ones (P = 0.02) and a positive and significant correlation was found between magnitude of stress and severity of depression (P ≤ 0.001).

Duration of depressive illness was positively and significantly correlated to the raw score of SRRS and to the severity of emotional neglect as measured by CTQ (P = 0.02 and 0.04 respectively).

The development of depression in adulthood is significantly associated with past exposure to child abuse and stressful life events. Childhood history of emotional neglect and magnitude of pre-onset stress may be contributing factors to duration of depressive illness.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.