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Depressive phenomenology in North and South American patients

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.140.1.47

The authors assessed patients newly admitted to two North American health centers and one South American (Colombian) center according to a standardized protocol, with a structured interview, a symptom checklist, and a depression scale. The patients were suffering from major depressive disorders with endogenous features. There was an impressive similarity in symptoms of depression across cultures, supporting the idea of a universal core depressive syndrome. However, somatization indexes, psychomotor components of depression, and levels of psychopathology differed between U.S. and Colombian samples. The authors offer a general discussion of potential determinants of these cross-cultural differences.

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