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Measuring melancholia: the utility of a prototypic symptom approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2008

G. Parker ,
K. Fletcher ,
M. Hyett ,
D. Hadzi-Pavlovic ,
M. Barrett  and
H. Synnott
G. Parker*
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia
K. Fletcher
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia
M. Hyett
Affiliation:
Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia
D. Hadzi-Pavlovic
Affiliation:
School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia
M. Barrett
Affiliation:
Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia
H. Synnott
Affiliation:
Black Dog Institute, Sydney, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: Professor G. Parker, Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia. (Email: g.parker@unsw.edu.au)
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Abstract

Background

Melancholia has long resisted classification, with many of its suggested markers lacking specificity. The imprecision of depressive symptoms, in addition to self-report biases, has limited the capacity of existing measures to delineate melancholic depression as a distinct subtype. Our aim was to develop a self-report measure differentiating melancholic and non-melancholic depression, weighting differentiation by prototypic symptoms and determining its comparative classification success with a severity-based strategy.

Method

Consecutively recruited depressed out-patients (n=228) rated 32 symptoms by prototypic or ‘characteristic’ relevance (using the Q-sort strategy) and severity [using the Severity-based Depression Rating System (SDRS) strategy]. Clinician diagnosis of melancholic/non-melancholic depression was the criterion measure, but two other formal measures of melancholia (Newcastle and DSM-IV criteria) were also tested.

Results

The prevalence of ‘melancholia’ ranged from 20.9% to 54.2% across the subtyping measures. The Q-sort measure had the highest overall correct classification rate in differentiating melancholic and non-melancholic depression (81.6%), with such decisions supported by validation analyses.

Conclusions

In differentiating a melancholic subtype or syndrome, prototypic symptoms should be considered as a potential alternative to severity-based ratings.

Keywords

DepressionmelancholiaprototypicQ-sort strategyseverity
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 39 , Issue 6 , June 2009 , pp. 989 - 998
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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