The structure of the symptoms of major depression: Factor analysis of a lifetime worst episode of depressive symptoms in a large general population sample.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A range of depressive symptoms may occur during an episode of major depression (MD). Do these symptoms describe a single disorder liability or different symptom dimensions? This study investigates the structure and clinical relevance of an expanded set of depressive symptoms in a large general population sample.

Methods

We studied 43,431 subjects from the Dutch Lifelines Cohort Study who participated in an online survey assessing the 9 symptom criteria of MD (DSM-IV-TR) and additional depressive symptoms during their worst lifetime episode of depressive symptoms lasting two weeks or more. Exploratory factor analyses were performed on expanded sets of 9, 14, and 24 depressive symptoms. The clinical relevance of the identified symptom dimensions was analyzed in conf

SUBMITTER: van Loo HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10833125 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature