Am J Psychiatry 1992; 149:346-351
Copyright © 1992 by American Psychiatric Association
Correlates of persistent depressive symptoms in widows
WS Nuss and GS Zubenko
Geriatric Health Services, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA.
OBJECTIVE: Delineation of factors that predict depressive symptom severity
6 or more months after the loss of a spouse may help identify individuals
at risk for persistent depressive symptoms. In this study, sociodemographic
and clinical correlates of depressive symptom severity were examined among
widows 6 to 16 months after the deaths of their husbands. METHOD: The 50
subjects were identified from the Allegheny County, Penn., death records
and were interviewed by telephone. The authors examined the relationship of
depressive symptoms to sociodemographic variables, perceptions of sex role
and quality of social supports, level of support sought for bereavement,
and premorbid personal and family psychiatric history. RESULTS: Widows with
persistent depressive symptoms were less likely to have worked outside the
home, had less favorable perceptions of their interpersonal support
systems, were more likely to have had previous psychiatric disorders, and
were likely to have sought professional help in response to their
bereavement. In a multivariate model, only premorbid psychiatric history
and the perception of interpersonal support system made independent
contributions to the prediction of Beck Depression Inventory scores above
the normal range. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest several factors that
may identify women at risk of protracted psychiatric morbidity after their
husbands' deaths. They also suggest that the persistence of depressive
symptoms an average of 1 year after the loss of a spouse may reflect a
pathological condition rather than normal grieving.
