The relationships between the severity of depression and behavioral attitudes

Abstract

The tasks of the investigation were to estimate behavioral attitudes in major depression and to check whether they are determined by the level of depression.

Subjects

44 patients with major depression.

Methods:

21-item Hamilton Rating Scale for depression; Test BASE (projective questionnaire) for the estimation of: search activity (SA), stereotyped activity (St), chaotic behavior (Ch), passive behavior (Pa). As a normal configuration of BASE we have estimated BASE with positive values (>0)of Sa and St and negative values (<0) of Ch and Pa (without taking into consideration the absolute values).

Results:

1. SA is decreased and Pa is increased in patients. Patients with the Hamilton scale <22.7 and > 31.1 do not display significant differences in BASE scales. Both groups displayed abnormal configuration of BASE. Correlations between behavioral attitudes and Hamilton scale are absent. 2. In patients with the abnormal configuration of BASE Hamilton scale was significantly higher (27.7) than in patients with normal configuration (24.6).

Conclusion:

The severity of depression does not determine the indexes of the single behavioral attitudes. The level of depression is related to the configuration of behavioral attitudes.