Subtypes of major depression: latent class analysis in depressed Han Chinese women.

BACKGROUND: Despite substantial research, uncertainty remains about the clinical and etiological heterogeneity of major depression (MD). Can meaningful and valid subtypes be identified and would they be stable cross-culturally? METHOD: Symptoms at their lifetime worst depressive episode were assesse...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Li, Y, Aggen, S, Shi, S, Gao, J, Tao, M, Zhang, K, Wang, X, Gao, C, Yang, L, Liu, Y, Li, K, Shi, J, Wang, G, Liu, L, Zhang, J, Du, B, Jiang, G, Shen, J, Zhang, Z, Liang, W, Sun, J, Hu, J, Liu, T
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2014
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Summary:BACKGROUND: Despite substantial research, uncertainty remains about the clinical and etiological heterogeneity of major depression (MD). Can meaningful and valid subtypes be identified and would they be stable cross-culturally? METHOD: Symptoms at their lifetime worst depressive episode were assessed at structured psychiatric interview in 6008 women of Han Chinese descent, age ⩾ 30 years, with recurrent DSM-IV MD. Latent class analysis (LCA) was performed in Mplus. RESULTS; Using the nine DSM-IV MD symptomatic A criteria, the 14 disaggregated DSM-IV criteria and all independently assessed depressive symptoms (n = 27), the best LCA model identified respectively three, four and six classes. A severe and non-suicidal class was seen in all solutions, as was a mild/moderate subtype. An atypical class emerged once bidirectional neurovegetative symptoms were included. The non-suicidal class demonstrated low levels of worthlessness/guilt and hopelessness. Patterns of co-morbidity, family history, personality, environmental precipitants, recurrence and body mass index (BMI) differed meaningfully across subtypes, with the atypical class standing out as particularly distinct. CONCLUSIONS: MD is a clinically complex syndrome with several detectable subtypes with distinct clinical and demographic correlates. Three subtypes were most consistently identified in our analyses: severe, atypical and non-suicidal. Severe and atypical MD have been identified in multiple prior studies in samples of European ethnicity. Our non-suicidal subtype, with low levels of guilt and hopelessness, may represent a pathoplastic variant reflecting Chinese cultural influences.