Neurotic depression: results and cluster analyses.

On a sample of 193 former depressive inpatients (145 female, 53 male), cluster analyses were carried out, both on the subjects and on the items for classficatory reasons. The study was based on 38 items relevant for the diagnostic axes of clinical phenomenology (during illness), characteristics of the course, and (intermorbid) personality. The findings from the multivariate statistical methods support the existence of a neurotic depressive disorder which can be identified by essential features and accessory features on the aforementioned three diagnostic axes. Especially noteworthy are maintained reactivity to the outside world, normal sadness, hypochondriasis, and open aggression; insidious onset of the depressive episode and long duration; and the neurotic basic personality. Despite a certain heterogeneity of the isolated neurotic depressive subgroups and profiles, their similarity is based on substantial common properties. In a comprehensive view of our findings, one can justifiably speak of a specific disorder that need not be defined in the negative as compared to the endogenous depression, but can be characterized in the positive.