Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:1415-1419
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Subtypes of depression identified by the KDS-3A: a pilot study
PN Wold and K Dwight
To devise a system of classifying depression subtypes at intake, the
authors administered the Kupfer Detre Scale (KDS-3A) to depressed
outpatients at intake and after one, three, and six months of treatment
with tricyclic antidepressants or lithium carbonate. None of the 10
tricyclic responders scored below 8 on the 14-point chronic anxiety scale
at intake while 7 of the 12 lithium responders did, suggesting that any
patient scoring below 8 is a probable candidate for lithium therapy.
Patients scoring 8 or above on the chronic anxiety scale fell into two
categories, those who had a low impulisivity score and responded to
tricyclic antidepressants and those who had a high impulsivity score,
responded to lithium, and had cyclothymic disorder or emotionally unstable
character disorder.
