Differentiating Chronic From Nonchronic Depression Through Overcontrolling and Social Connectedness Constructs

Current studies show that specific pathological features separating chronic depression from non-chronicremain largely unknown. In his psychopathological theory, Lynch has introduced two constructs namely overcontrolling and social connectedness that can not only explain the depression but also its chronicity and treatment resistance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the strength of these two constructs in distinguishing chronic depression from non-chronic depression. The study sample consisted of 20 patients with chronic depression, 16 patients with non-chronic depression and 17 healthy subjects (n=53) who were selected using purposeful sampling. The data were analyzed using MANOVA. The findings showed that overcontrolling and social connectedness were able to distinguish patients with chronic depression, patients with non-chronic depression and healthy subjects from each other; however, analyzing each variable individually, reveal that ambivalence over expression of emotions did not differentiate between patients with chronic depression and patients with non-chronic depression. Also the personal need for structure could not differentiate between the groups. The implications of the findings are discussed.