Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:51:37.304Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social origins of depression: a reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

George W. Brown*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Bedford College, University of London
Tirril Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Bedford College, University of London
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor G. W. Brown, Social Research Unit, Bedford College Annexe, 51 Harley Street, London WIN 1DD.

Synopsis

Many of the criticisms of our work made by Tennant & Bebbington in the current edition of this journal touch on issues which have already been discussed in our recent book Social Origins of Depression. We do not think that any of their points pose significant threats to our aetiological model of depression. We welcome this opportunity to clarify their questions about our data, and to use their re-analysis of our material as a basis for a wider discussion of certain general aspects of the statistical analysis and interpretation of data and the pitfalls which await the unwary.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978). Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Ní Bhrolcháin, M. & Harris, T. (1975). Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology 9, 225254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Ní Bhrolcháin, M. & Harris, T. (1977 a). A study of depression in women: a reply to Keith Hope's critical note. Sociology 11, 527531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. W., Davidson, S., Harris, T., Maclean, U., Pollock, S. & Prudo, R. (1977 b). Psychiatric disorder in London and North Uist. Social Science and Medicine 11, 366377.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Harris, T. & Copeland, J. R. (1977 c). Depression and loss. British Journal of Psychiatry 130, 118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clayton, P. J., Herjanic, M., Murphy, G. E. & Woodruff, R. Jr (1974). Mourning and depression. Their similarities and differences. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal 19, 309312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Finlay-Jones, R. A. & Murphy, E. (1978). Severity of psychiatric disorder and the 30-item General Health Questionnaire. (Unpublished.)Google Scholar
Galtung, J. (1967). Theory and Methods of Social Research. Allen and Unwin: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Hagnell, O. (1966). A Prospective Study of the Incidence of Mental Disorder. Svenska Bokforlaget Norstedts-Bonniers: Stockholm.Google Scholar
Harvey-Smith, E. A. & Cooper, B. (1970). Patterns of neurotic illness in the community. Journal of Royal College of General Practitioners 19, 132139.Google ScholarPubMed
Kedward, H. B. & Cooper, B. (1966). Neurotic disorders in urban practice: a three-year follow-up. Journal of Royal College of General Practitioners 12, 148163.Google Scholar
Kessel, W. I. N. (1960). Psychiatric morbidity in a London general practice. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine 14, 1622.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S. (1978). Contribution of life events to causation of psychiatric illness. Psychological Medicine 8, 245253.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, C. (1978). Vulnerability models, interaction and log-linear analysis. (Unpublished.)Google Scholar
Susser, M. (1973). Causal Thinking in the Health Sciences. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Tennant, C. & Bebbington, P. (1978). The social causation of depression: a critique of the work of Brown and his colleagues. Psychological Medicine 8, 565575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, R. (1969). The fund of sociability. Transaction 7, 3643.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K. (1976). A technique for studying psychiatric morbidity in in-patient and out-patient series and in general population samples. Psychological Medicine 6, 665671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Mann, S. A., Leff, J. P. & Nixon, J. M. (1978). The concept of a ‘case’ in psychiatric population surveys Psychological Medicine 8, 203217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed