Risks for Major Depression: Searching for Stable Traits

In this issue of Biological Psychiatry, Scifo et  al. (1) follow a reasonable clinical and epidemiologic classification to separate biological traits and states. They base their hypothesis on existing strong findings that patients often have lifelong recurring episodes of major depression of increasing severity, shorter remission periods, and red uced therapeutic response. Based on these observations, they reason that patients with differing clinical courses (single episodes, single episodes in remission, recurrent episodes, recurrent episodes in remission, and control subjects) should show differing biological traits and states.
Source: Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research