Relative lack of depressive cognitions in post-myocardial infarction depression.

Background: Depression has been associated with adverse clinical events in myocardial infarction (MI) patients, but many questions about the nature of post-MI depression remain unanswered. We examined whether depressive cognitions characteristic of depression in psychiatric patients are also present in post-MI patients with major depression (MD).

Methods: Non-depressed (n=40) and depressed (n=40) post-MI patients, and psychiatric outpatients (n=40) treated for clinical depression, matched on age and sex, were interviewed using a structured clinical interview to diagnose DSM-IV MD.

Multiple assessments of depressive symptoms as an index of depression in population-based samples.

The incremental validity of repeated measurements of a short depression questionnaire was examined regarding the clinical diagnosis of depression. Participants were 951 randomly selected women of around menopausal age. They completed the Edinburgh Depression Scale (EDS) at two time points, with approximately 18 months in between.