[The Newcastle Index for the diagnosis of endogenous depression. Comparison with the Research Diagnostic Criteria for major depression].

The Newcastle index comprises 10 items (with a positive or negative score) the sum of which enables us to separate endogenous and neurotic depressive patients. We applied this index to a sample of 41 depressive inpatients who met Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for major depression. According to Newcastle index, 20 patients were considered to be endogenous and 21 to be neurotic. There was no significant difference between the two groups with regard to sex distribution and mean age. The distribution of scores suggested a trend toward bimodality. Endogenous depressives exhibited higher severity level than neurotic depressives, as shown by the total score on the Hamilton depression scale as well as the scores on various items related to depressive mood, guilt, decreased activity, psychomotor disturbances, genital symptoms, helplessness, hopelessness, and worthlessness. This higher severity level was confirmed by the higher frequency of two symptomatic criteria of major depression among endogenous depressives as compared to neurotic depressives: psychomotor and memory disturbances. Moreover, endogenous depressives defined by Newcastle index were more frequently of primary, endogenous, agitated and simple RDC subtypes whereas neurotic depressives were more frequently of secondary and situational RDC subtypes. Therefore, the results of this preliminary study suggest that the Newcastle index may enable us to define two subtypes of depressive patients characterized by different symptomatic severity levels.