Comparison of early and late onset dysthymia.

The present investigation compares early and late onset community dysthymia groups on insidious onset patterns, cognitive, coping, and symptom measures testing the assumption implicit in DSM-III-R that the two groups are qualitatively dissimilar. The results suggest that, regardless of age of onset, the groups did not differ except on some features of coping style. Homogeneity, not heterogeneity, was the predominant finding.

A longitudinal study of an untreated sample of predominantly late onset characterological dysthymia.

The current study represents one of the first psychological investigations that attempts to describe the untreated course of late onset characterological dysthymia. Of 34 dysthymic subjects who were studied for 9 months, six women remitted (18%). Twenty-eight subjects (82%) remained unchanged.