Biomedical subjects

W Coryell

Publications and source records attributed to W Coryell.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed1995

Familial depression versus depression identified in a control group: are they the same?

Subjects who meet the criteria for an affective syndrome possibly are aetiologically heterogeneous. An approach to this possibility involves examining affectively ill subjects obtained by different methods of ascertainment. This study compares depressed and manic subjects who are related to affectively ill probands with affectively ill subjects who were obtained from a study of a control population, and, therefore, were less likely to be familial. The subjects were identified in a large collaborative study of depression where both family members as well as controls were personally interviewed and followed up for 6 years after admission to the study. Data were obtained on subtypes of affective disorder using the Research Diagnostic Criteria and information was gathered about psychiatric hospitalizations, suicide attempts, alcoholism and psychological functioning prior to admission. Similar assessments were made for the comparison groups for the 6 year period between intake and follow-up. Relatives of bipolar I/schizoaffective manic probands were more likely to show mania than affectively ill controls or relatives of unipolar/schizoaffective depressed probands. Affectively ill controls were less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to suffer from an incapacitating depression. They were also likely to have functioned in a more healthy fashion than the affectively ill relatives of the bipolars and unipolars, in the 5 years before admission to the study. In the 6 year follow-up, both the subjects themselves and raters assessed the depressed controls as functioning better than the affectively ill relatives of the probands. Further, assessment of global adjustment during the 6 year period was worse for the relatives of affectively ill probands than for the depressed controls. Length of major depression was longer in relatives of bipolar and unipolar probands than in controls. Though all of the subjects in this study met research criteria for an affective illness, there were marked differences in the qualitative aspects of these illnesses with the relatives of affectively ill probands, who functioned less well and had longer and more severe episodes and more hospitalizations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Affective illness in family members and matched controls.

As part of the US National Institute of Mental Health Collaborative Program on the Psychobiology of Depression study, a subset of 460 randomly chosen relatives of affectively ill probands were compared to a control group matched by the acquaintanceship method. The rate of major affective disorder in relatives was found to be 36%; the rate among controls was 28%. Relatives were also found to have significantly higher rates of bipolar II disorder, any Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) affective disorder and any RDC mental disorder. All of these rates were found to be significantly higher when female relatives were compared with their acquaintances, but only the rate of any RDC mental disorder was higher when this comparison was made in men. The acquaintanceship method enabled the selection of a control group that closely resembled the relatives, probably to the extent of "overmatching". When the match was evaluated to determine whether relatives tended to select comparably ill (or well) acquaintances, this was found to be the case only for alcoholic and never mentally ill relatives.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Alcoholism in manic-depressive (bipolar) illness: familial illness, course of illness, and the primary-secondary distinction.

OBJECTIVE: This 5-year follow-up study was designed to explore the factors that might lead to alcoholism in patients with bipolar disorder. METHOD: The authors studied patients with bipolar illness (70 with alcoholism and 161 without), their relatives, and a comparison group composed of relatives' acquaintances. All were evaluated with versions of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, and diagnoses were made according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria. Thirty of the bipolar alcoholic patients whose affective disorder was primary were also compared with 34 whose alcoholism was primary. RESULTS: Alcoholism was more frequent in the bipolar patients than in the comparison subjects. There no significant differences between the alcoholic and nonalcoholic bipolar patients in family history of alcoholism or affective disorders, suggesting that bipolar illness with alcoholism is not explicable by a family history of alcoholism and that the alcoholism seen in bipolar illness is dissimilar to alcoholism as a primary disorder. Alcoholism associated with bipolar illness was more likely to remit than primary alcoholism. There was no significant difference in family history between the patients with primary alcoholism and those with primary bipolar disorder. The patients with primary alcoholism had significantly fewer episodes of affective disorder during followup, suggesting that their type of bipolar illness was less severe and may have needed the added insult of alcoholism to make it manifest. CONCLUSIONS: The study supports the idea that not all alcoholism is primary with a corresponding familial diathesis. Rather, alcoholism associated with bipolar disorder is often a secondary complication.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Long-term stability of polarity distinctions in the affective disorders.

OBJECTIVE: This analysis aimed to quantify the long-term stability of distinctions between nonbipolar, bipolar II, and bipolar I affective disorders and to determine the predictors of shifts in patients' diagnoses among these categories. METHOD: Probands entered the study as they sought treatment for manic, major depressive, or schizoaffective disorder diagnosed according to the Research Diagnostic Criteria. After thorough baseline evaluations, 605 patients with nonbipolar major depressive disorder or schizoaffective disorder, depressed type; 96 with bipolar II disorder; and 231 with bipolar I disorder or schizoaffective disorder, manic type, began the follow-up study. Direct interviews took place at 6-month intervals for the first 5 years and annually thereafter. RESULTS: Only 20 (5.2%) of the 381 initially nonbipolar probands who completed 10 years of follow-up developed mania during that time, and only 19 (5.0%) developed hypomania. A slightly higher proportion of the 67 who began with bipolar II disorder developed mania during the 10 years. Although 101 (66.4%) of the 152 bipolar I or schizoaffective manic probands developed subsequent manic episodes, only 11 (7.2%) developed hypomanic episodes and no mania. Young age at intake and at onset and chronicity of the index episode predicted shifts from nonbipolar to bipolar II disorder. Psychosis and a family history of mania predicted shifts from nonbipolar to bipolar I disorder. CONCLUSIONS: The high stability of baseline distinctions between nonbipolar, bipolar II, and bipolar I disorders, in combination with previously described family study data, strongly supports the separation of these disorders for both clinical and research purposes.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Characteristics and significance of untreated major depressive disorder.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to describe the characteristics and consequences of untreated major depressive disorder. METHOD: As part of a family study of probands with major affective disorders, raters assessed 3,119 first-degree relatives, spouses, and comparison subjects. When 2,237 (71.7%) of these individuals were reassessed 6 years later, 547 had experienced episodes of major depressive disorder in the interval. Those who had sought any form of treatment for any episode of major depressive disorder in the interval were compared, by baseline demographic characteristics and clinical features of their worst episodes of major depressive disorder, to those who had not. Individuals who had had untreated major depressive disorder were then compared, by changes in socioeconomic status and by levels of psychosocial impairment at follow-up, to a matched group with no major depressive disorder in the interval. RESULTS: The worst episodes of 313 treated individuals, compared to those of 234 untreated individuals, were characterized by older age, symptoms of the endogenous subtype, longer durations, and the presence of disruption in role function. Each of these factors contributed independently to the distinction between treated and untreated episodes. Untreated individuals experienced significant psychosocial impairment on follow-up but did not show the economic disadvantages shown elsewhere for probands who began follow-up as they sought treatment at tertiary medical centers. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that illness characteristics and age determine the decision to seek treatment for major depressive disorder. Untreated depression is apparently associated with long-standing psychosocial difficulties but not with serious economic consequences.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

The time course of nonchronic major depressive disorder. Uniformity across episodes and samples. National Institute of Mental Health Collaborative Program on the Psychobiology of Depression--Clinical Studies.

BACKGROUND: Most natural history studies of affective disorders have emphasized the prediction of eventual recovery. Little is known of changes over time in the immediate probability of recovery. METHODS: To identify regularities in the timing of recovery from nonbipolar major depressive disorders, we considered only episodes that began during follow-up to increase the accuracy with which onsets were timed and to limit the study sample to individuals who had a demonstrably episodic course. Five participating centers conducted baseline assessments and followed probands (N = 605) and nonclinical subjects (relatives, controls, and spouses, N = 826) up for 6 years. During that time, 359 probands had at least one prospectively observed episode, and 181 had two episodes; corresponding numbers for the nonclinical subjects were 216 and 78, respectively. Our analyses considered the distribution of episode lengths across ascertainment source (probands vs nonclinical subjects), center, and episode number (first vs second prospectively observed episode). RESULTS: Distribution was remarkably uniform. Regardless of ascertainment source, center, or episode number, recovery occurred within 3 months in 40% of episodes, within 6 months in 60%, and within 1 year in 80%; 20% had more protracted courses. CONCLUSIONS: Once triggered, the immediate likelihood of recovery changes over time in a predictable fashion. This has practical implications for the study of antidepressant efficacy and theoretical implications for factors involved in affective dysregulation.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Recurrently situational (reactive) depression: a study of course, phenomenology and familial psychopathology.

Probands with non-bipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) were grouped according to the consistency across episodes with which depression appeared to arise from situational factors. Situational depression showed significant diagnostic stability across the second and third recurrences in a 10-year follow-up. The relatives of recurrently situational probands had higher neuroticism scores, higher lifetime rates of MDD and, when depressed, fewer endogenous symptoms than did the relatives of non-situational probands. This study joins two others in finding an association between stress-related depression and high familial loadings for MDD. It also illustrates the value of diagnostic consistency across episodes as a means of refining groups for the study of diagnostic subtypes.

Adjustment Disorders↗

PubMed1994

Manic-depressive (bipolar) disorder: the course in light of a prospective ten-year follow-up of 131 patients.

For a five-year period, 131 bipolar patients were followed every 6 months; for the next 5 years, they were followed yearly. Each patient was interviewed in a systematic way that gave information about episodes, hospitalizations, cycle lengths and the presence of alcoholism. Women and men were not significantly different in the number of follow-up manic or depressive episodes or hospitalizations. Chronicity from index episode to the end of the 10-year follow-up was uncommon (4%). Alcoholism, which was common in these patients, showed a great diminution at the end of 10 years. Contrary to expectation, cycle lengths showed no systematic decrease in length over the follow-up. In this naturalistic study, treatment intensity was not related to decreasing episodes or to changes in cycle length. The number of episodes in the first 5 years of follow-up was not correlated with the number of episodes in the last 5 years. Cycle lengths in the first 5 years of follow-up were similar in length to the last 5 years of follow-up. A family history of mania in these bipolar patients was associated with more episodes in follow-up than if such a family history were absent. The patients whose alcoholism predated the onset of their affective illness were less likely to have episodes in the follow-up than the patients in whom affective illness predated the onset of the alcoholism.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

The long-term stability of depressive subtypes.

OBJECTIVE: This study used the concept of diagnostic stability to examine the validity of three subtypes of major depression. METHOD: Patients with major depressive disorder (N = 424) were assigned baseline diagnoses according to structured interviews and the Research Diagnostic Criteria. Follow-up evaluations took place at 6-month intervals over the next 5 years and annually for an additional 3 years. During this period 424, 246, 163, and 96 of the patients who had recovered from the index episode had one, two, three, and four recurrences, respectively, of major depressive disorder. The kappa statistic was used to quantify the likelihood that patients with the psychotic, agitated/retarded, or endogenous subtype of depression in a given episode would again manifest that subtype in subsequent episodes. RESULTS: The psychotic subtype showed the most enduring diagnostic stability across multiple subsequent episodes. Even after three intervening episodes, patients with baseline psychotic major depression were five times more likely to develop a psychotic depression than were other depressed patients. For all three subtypes, diagnostic stability was greater for contiguous episodes than for noncontiguous episodes. Psychotic, agitated/retarded, and endogenous subtypes showed significant stability after control for the bipolar/unipolar and primary/secondary distinctions. The endogenous subtype was stable among patients with primary depression but not among those with secondary depression. CONCLUSIONS: The psychotic subtype was the most valid of the subtypes tested from the perspective of diagnostic stability. The fact that stability across adjacent episodes exceeded stability across more distantly spaced episodes may reflect state-dependent determinants, and these are likely to vary by subtype.

Bipolar Disorder↗

PubMed1994

Prognostic effect of the variable course of alcoholism on the 10-year course of depression.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive effect of the clinical activity of patients' alcohol use on the course of major depressive disorder. METHOD: One hundred seventy-six probands with Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) diagnoses of both major depressive disorder and alcoholism were compared to 412 probands with major depressive disorder only by using 10 years of short-interval, prospective follow-up data collected as part of the National Institute of Mental Health Collaborative Depression Study. The course of depression was examined by using intensity analysis to represent transitions between states of major depressive disorder. The effect of patients' RDC alcoholism status on the long-term course of major depressive disorder was examined by stratifying the analyses by three levels of alcoholism--never alcoholic, not meeting criteria for current alcoholism, and current alcoholism. RESULTS: Depressed probands who were either never alcoholic or currently nonactive alcoholic had twice the likelihood of recovery from major depressive disorder than did actively alcoholic depressed probands. The three levels of alcoholism did not differentially predict recurrence of major depressive disorder. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide long-term, empirically derived evidence for the deleterious effect of current alcoholism on recovery from depression. The lack of a differential effect of the three levels of alcoholism on recurrence of major depressive disorder suggests that other factors may have greater predictive value.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

A prospective follow-up of patients with bipolar and primary unipolar affective disorder.

OBJECTIVE: As part of the National Institute of Mental Health Collaborative Study of the Psychobiology of Depression, the comparative course of manic depressive (bipolar) and primary unipolar patients was assessed. DESIGN: Systematic evaluation using structured instruments every 6 months for a period of 5 years with the recording of remissions, new episodes, and subsequent hospitalizations. PATIENTS: The number of subjects varied somewhat depending on the analyses conducted. For a comparison of course in bipolar patients and unipolar patients, 148 bipolars were compared with 172 unipolar patients. RESULTS: Both unipolar and bipolar patients were more likely to have episodes if they had episodes prior to index admission. Likewise, prior hospitalizations predicted multiple hospitalizations in follow-up. Chronicity was significantly more prevalent among unipolar depressives but in both unipolar and bipolar patients, chronicity diminished over time. Bipolar patients were more likely than unipolar patients to have multiple episodes at the 2-year and 5-year follow-ups. In bipolar patients, there was no difference in the number of episodes in follow-up between males and females but in unipolar patients, females were significantly more likely to have subsequent hospitalizations and episodes than males. Treatment variables did not relate to these differences. A family history of mania or schizoaffective mania predicted multiple episodes in bipolar patients but not in primary unipolar depressives. A family history of all affective illness (mania, schizoaffective mania, bipolar II illness, and depression) did not predict a multiple-episode course in either bipolar or unipolar illness. In unipolar patients, the independent variables leading to multiple-episode course in follow-up are being female, an early age of onset, and prior episodes. CONCLUSIONS: As a result of this systematic follow-up study, new data add to the distinction between bipolar and primary unipolar patients both as regards number of episodes in follow-up and also as regards risk factors that are associated with the multiple-episode course.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

A method to detect intercenter differences in the application of contemporary diagnostic criteria.

The use of specified diagnostic criteria is part of routine psychiatric practice and research. However, there is evidence that the same criteria may be interpreted and applied differently at different research centers. The next question is whether it is possible to detect these systematic intercenter differences in diagnostic practices. An inexpensive, nonlaborious, standardized method is needed that can easily be used at any site. In the present report, we demonstrate how self-report questionnaires can provide a method of detecting systematic differences in the application of contemporary diagnostic criteria. Sixty consecutively admitted inpatients with nonpsychotic major depressive disorder were interviewed with standardized schedules and diagnosed according to two interpretations of the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) and DSM-III endogenous/melancholia criteria. The patients also completed the Inventory to Diagnose Depression, a self-report scale designed to diagnose major depression and subtype patients according to RDC and DSM-III endogenous/melancholia criteria. The interview to self-report ratio for diagnosing endogenous depression and melancholia was associated with diagnosticians' interpretation of the criteria. A broader application of the criteria resulted in a higher ratio. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire could be useful in detecting systematic interinvestigator differences in the broadness or narrowness with which criteria are applied. The advantage of a self-report scale is that it is free from systematic biases and tendencies of clinician raters. Of course, ratings on questionnaires are not free of bias; however, it is less likely that differences between samples will reflect a systematic variation in response set.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Bipolar I: a five-year prospective follow-up.

We explored the course of bipolar I illness in 172 probands who were followed up prospectively for up to 5 years. Probands were grouped into three categories based on whether the symptoms of the index episode were only depressed, only manic, or mixed/cycling. Data were available for recovery from the index episode, subsequent relapse, and rates of recovery from the first prospective episode. Pure manic probands had a significantly faster rate of recovery (median, 6 weeks) than the mixed/cycling probands (median, 17 weeks), and the pure depressive probands had an intermediate rate (median, 11 weeks). After 5 years of follow-up the mixed/cycling patients continue to have the lowest cumulative probability of recovery from the index episode. Mixed/cycling probands also had a substantially faster time to relapse after recovery from the index episode compared with pure manic patients. For those patients who relapsed, the mixed/cycling patients had the lowest cumulative probability of recovery from the first prospectively observed episode. The treatment received by these patients is described and there is a discussion of how this treatment may have influenced the findings on course and outcome.

Antipsychotic Agents↗

PubMed1993

Comparison of four diagnostic systems for the diagnosis of somatization disorder.

This article compares the Feighner criteria, the DSM-III criteria for somatization disorder and a modified version of the proposed ICD-10 criteria. Working with a data set collected from the charts of 250 patients considered likely to have unexplained somatic symptoms, the kappa statistic and percentage agreement was calculated. The kappa between the DSM-III and DSM-III-R criteria is 0.93. Between the modified ICD-10 and DSM-III it was 0.71, but between Feighner and the modified ICD-10 it was 0.44. However, the different criteria identify the same patient population based on mental co-morbidity and demographics. The authors suggest that the modified version of the proposed ICD-10 should be investigated further, as it can use data sets previously collected for assessments of somatization disorder.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

The enduring psychosocial consequences of mania and depression.

OBJECTIVE: The authors sought to determine the scope, severity, and persistence of psychosocial impairment arising from bipolar and unipolar affective disorder. METHOD: Patients with bipolar (N = 148) or unipolar (N = 240) major affective disorder were assessed as they sought treatment and again after a 5-year follow-up. Concurrently, parents, siblings, and adult children underwent similar assessments and were followed for 6 years. To quantify the impact of affective disorder, probands were individually matched to relatives who had no lifetime history of affective disorder. Sixty-nine relatives who were depressed at intake constituted a separate, nonclinical study group and were also matched to relatives who were well. RESULTS: Both unipolar and bipolar patients began follow-up with deficits in annual income. Relative to comparison subjects, affective disorder groups were significantly more likely to report declines in job status and income at the end of follow-up and significantly less likely to report improvements. Similarly, both bipolar and unipolar patients showed significant deficits in nearly all other areas of psychosocial functioning measured at follow-up. Except for relationships with spouses, deficits did not differ significantly by polarity. Surprisingly, probands with recovery sustained throughout the final 2 years of follow-up also showed severe and widespread impairment. Relatives with major depression exhibited substantial deficits on follow-up, but job status and income were not significantly affected. CONCLUSIONS: The psychosocial impairment associated with mania and major depression extends to essentially all areas of functioning and persists for years, even among individuals who experience sustained resolution of clinical symptoms.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1993

Further distinctions between manic-depressive illness (bipolar disorder) and primary depressive disorder (unipolar depression)

OBJECTIVE: Patients with bipolar disorder differ from patients with unipolar depression by having family histories of mania with an earlier onset and by having more episodes over a lifetime. This study was designed to determine whether additional aspects of course of illness, the presence of medical diseases, childhood traits, and other familial illnesses separate the two groups. METHOD: In a large collaborative study, consecutively admitted bipolar and unipolar patients were systematically given clinical interviews. Data were collected on medical diseases and childhood behavioral traits. Systematic family history and family study data were also obtained. The patients were studied every 6 months for 5 years. RESULTS: The group of bipolar patients had an earlier onset, a more acute onset, more total episodes, and more familial mania and were more likely to be male. These differences were relatively independent of each other. The bipolar patients were also more likely to have shown traits of hyperactivity as children. The unipolar patients had a significantly greater number of lifetime medical/surgical interventions than the bipolar patients, even when age was controlled. Alcoholism was more frequently found in the families of the bipolar patients, even when alcoholism in the probands was controlled; however, this difference was not significant. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the usefulness of distinguishing between bipolar and unipolar patients in treatment and research studies.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

An 8-year follow-up of patients with DSM-III-R psychotic depression, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the long-term outcome of patients with functional psychoses. The functional status of patients with mood-congruent and mood-incongruent psychotic depression, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia was examined. METHOD: Ninety-two inpatients with nonmanic and nonorganic functional psychoses who had been discharged from the hospital were identified through inpatient records. A blind rater used DSM-III-R criteria to assign research diagnoses to the patients on the basis of the data gathered at admission. Seventy-one patients were located 8 years later, and personal interviews were conducted with them. RESULTS: Baseline diagnosis was a powerful predictor of long-term outcome, even after controlling for age at onset and duration of episode at admission. Patients with psychotic depression had much better outcomes than patients with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia. Fourteen (43.8%) of 32 patients with psychotic depression were free from psychosis at follow-up, in marked contrast to those who had schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia, none of whom had recovered. Patients with schizoaffective disorder could not be distinguished from patients with schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: The prognosis of patients with major depression with mood-incongruent features most closely resembles that of depressed patients with mood-congruent features, while patients with DSM-III-R schizoaffective disorder have a prognosis resembling that of schizophrenic patients. Patients with psychotic affective disorders have a much higher likelihood of recovering from psychosis than do schizophrenic patients.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1992

Familial subtypes of unipolar depression: a prospective study of familial pure depressive disease compared to depression spectrum disease.

In a large multicenter effort, major depressives were systematically studied at index admission and prospectively followed up for 5 years. Primary unipolar depressives with a family history of alcoholism (depression spectrum disease) differ from depressives with a family history of depression only (familial pure depressive disease) in having more familial anxiety and somatization disorder, more divorce, more suicide attempts, more negative life events, and needed more time to recover from the index episode. In the 5-year follow-up they are more likely to develop alcoholism and drug abuse. Depressive spectrum disease patients are more likely to meet systematic criteria for neurotic depression. The data suggest that major depression is a syndrome that is heterogeneous, and may be a final common pathway of more than one familial illnesses.

Adult↗