The differential influence of life stress on individual symptoms of depression.

OBJECTIVE

Life stress consistently increases the incidence of major depression. Recent evidence has shown that individual symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) differ in important dimensions such as their genetic and etiological background, but the impact of stress on individual MDD symptoms is not known. Here, we assess whether stress affects depression symptoms differentially.

METHOD

We used the chronic stress of medical internship to examine changes of the nine Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 criterion symptoms for depression in 3021 interns assessed prior to and throughout internship.

RESULTS

All nine depression symptoms increased in response to stress (all P < 0.001), on average by 173%. Symptom increases differed substantially from each other (P < 0.001), with psychomotor problems (289%) and interest loss (217%) showing the largest increases, and suicidal ideation (146%) and sleep problems (52%) the smallest. Symptoms also differed in their severities under stress (P < 0.001): Fatigue, appetite problems and sleep problems were most prevalent; psychomotor problems and suicidal ideation were least prevalent.

CONCLUSION

Stress differentially affects the DSM-5 depressive symptoms. Analyses of individual symptoms reveal important insights obfuscated by sum-scores.