Object representations and their relationship to psychopathology and physical health status in African-American women in primary care.

Object relations theories hypothesize a relationship between self/other representations and level of psychopathology. Research has lent support to this hypothesis. This study was conducted to examine the link between object representation and psychopathology, stress, physical health status, and alcohol abuse in 110 African-American women in primary care.

Functional health status and its relationship to depressive personality disorder, dysthymia, and major depression: preliminary findings.

Controversy continues on the extent to which depressive personality disorder (DPD) and dysthymic disorder (DYST) may be differentiated. Although affective disorders often are accompanied by changes in functional health status, to date no study has examined how functional health associated with affective disorders may assist in differentiating the two disorders. In this study, we hypothesized that measures of DPD would have fewer correlations with functional health status than would measures of DYST and major depressive disorder (MDD).