Provoking agents, vulnerability factors and depression in an Italian setting: a replication of Brown and Harris's model.

The aetiological model of depression proposed by Brown and Harris in 1978 was examined in a sample of 120 women in Milan, using the same method for the assessment of life stresses. The role of provoking agents (severe events and major difficulties) was found to be similar to that of the earlier study. There was some evidence that lack of an intimate relationship with a husband or a boyfriend acted as a vulnerability factor, increasing the risk of depression in the face of provoking agents. The overall results support the Brown-Harris aetiological model in a quite different cultural setting.