Impact of depersonalization on the course of depression: longitudinal observations from the gutenberg health study.

Background: Symptoms of depersonalization (DP) and derealization (DR) are a risk factor for more severe impairment, non-response to various treatments, and a chronic course. In this study, we investigated the effects of DP/DR symptoms in patients with clinically significant depressive symptoms on clinical characteristics and various outcomes in a representative population-based sample with a 5-year follow-up.

Methods: The middle-aged sample comprised n = 10,422 persons at baseline, of whom n = 9,301 were free from depressive and DP/DR symptoms.