A FOLLOW-UP STUDY OF ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN NONHOSPITALIZED DEPRESSED PATIENTS AFTER FOURTEEN YEARS
LLOYD H. ZIEGLER M. D., and
PHILIP H. HEERSEMA M. D.
1. A fourteen-year follow-up on 111 non-hospitalized depressive patients brought information from 84, 25 of whom are dead, seven from suicide.
2. The suicide rate in this group is many times that of the general population of the same age and sex.
3. There appeared to be more deaths from pneumonia among this group and perhaps fewer deaths from heart failure than are to be found in the general population.
4. At least four patients formerly given a diagnosis of depression are now regarded as schizophrenic; six patients have been in public institutions much of the fourteen-year period covered by this study.
5. Neurotic and hypochondriacal symptoms in combination with depression tend to accentuate the chronicity of the reaction.
6. Patients who recovered tended to have simpler disorders and some assets not usually found in those patients who were unimproved or worse.
7. None of these patients reported the use of shock therapy; this study may therefore serve as a basis of comparison with shock-treated patients.
8. Forty of 59 patients known to be alive are working in some degree.
9. Depression is a pathological state that deserves study as well as other damaging agents, such as neoplasms and infections, to the end of cure or prevention.
