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Depression in medical in‐patients
Author(s) -
Rosenberg Samuel J.,
Peterson Rolf A.,
Hayes John R.,
Hatcher Joseph,
Headen Sandra
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
british journal of medical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 0007-1129
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1988.tb02786.x
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , medical illness , mood , psychiatry , psychology , perception , cognition , clinical psychology , cognitive appraisal , medicine , neuroscience , economics , macroeconomics
Between one‐fifth and one‐third of patients hospitalized on general medicine wards experience significant depressive symptoms during their hospitalization. This study employed 71 general medical in‐patients and examined the relative association of illness/hospitalization characteristics, patient characteristics and environmental characteristics with in‐patient medical depression. Multiple regression results indicated that in‐patient medical depression was related to pre‐hospitalization depression and social functioning, patient perception of physician supportiveness and patient perception of illness‐related life‐disruption. None of the objective illness/hospitalization variables related to depression while in the hospital. These results are interpreted with regard to several current theories in medical psychology including a life‐stress model emphasizing the ability of prior disorder to predict subsequent disorder, a social interaction model focusing on the effects of physicians's supportive behaviour on patients' emotional adjustment in the hospital, and models of illness that stress cognitive appraisal in determining illness‐related mood and behaviour.