In the present study, there were no significant differences for either poor marriage or unemployment between patients with 0 to 1 previous episode and those with 2 or more previous episodes, and no married patient had a previous episode during the year before the index episode. A poor marriage rating, therefore, did not appear to be directly due to the deleterious effects of past depression. In the present study, however, the only significant interaction between life events and risk factors was that employed depressed patients had experienced significantly more life events before the onset of depression than unemployed depressed patients. This suggests the possibility that more antecedent stress may be needed to precipitate depression in an employed individual than in an unemployed individual. Clinical Implications Unemployment and poor marriage are risk factors for depression.
Depressed patients experience more recent life events.
Less antecedent stress may be needed to precipitate depression in an unemployed individual than in an employed individual. This was not an epidemiologic study. Personality was not studied. Family history of depression was not studied. Acknowledgement Thanks are due to Haftan Eckholdt, PhD, for statistical help.