Am J Psychiatry 1994; 151:205-209
Copyright © 1994 by American Psychiatric Association
Symptom differences in major depression, dysthymia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder
DA Clark, AT Beck and JS Beck
Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.
OBJECTIVE: The authors compared symptom features of specific subtypes of
depressive and anxiety disorders. METHODS: Psychiatric outpatients with
moderate levels of psychopathology and DSM-III diagnoses of major
depression, dysthymia, panic disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder were
given five standard measures of symptoms of anxiety and depressive
disorders. Most of the outpatients were white, and most were middle- class.
RESULTS: Principal components analysis revealed 12 orthogonal symptom
components. Discriminant function analysis indicated that anxiety was
distinguished by specific autonomic arousal symptoms, threat-related
cognitions, and subjective anxiety and tension. Discriminant function
analysis also indicated that depression was distinguished by anhedonia,
cognitions of personal loss and failure, and dysphoric mood. CONCLUSIONS:
As nosological categories, major depression and panic disorder were better
differentiated by specific symptom markers than dysthymia and generalized
anxiety disorder.
