Depression: A Very Short Introduction by Mary Jane Tacchi & Jan Scott

Author:Mary Jane Tacchi & Jan Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780191026973
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2016-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

Box 6 George Brown’s vulnerability factors in women

• having three or more children under the age of 14 years

• having no paid employment outside of the home

• a lack of a confiding relationship.

• loss of her mother before the age of 11 years

The second study concentrated on working-class women with a child living at home. Over 400 mothers living in Islington, an inner-city area in north London, were interviewed and anyone who was currently depressed was excluded from the study. One year later over 300 women were interviewed again and the researchers explored social and psychological experiences associated with new onsets of depression. The findings concerning life events were particularly thought-provoking as the researchers uncovered some important caveats that may explain different reactions to similar events and the nature of events linked to onset of depression and also to recovery. For example, the study confirmed that severe threatening events, especially those concerning loss, were important precipitants of depression in women with one or more of the identified vulnerability factors (listed in Box 6).

Interestingly, the use of more refined assessment procedures allowed the researchers to uncover that life events that could be categorized as ‘humiliation’ or ‘entrapment’ experiences were particularly associated with the onset of a depressive episode. Loss events which did not involve humiliation were more than 50 per cent less likely to be followed by the onset of depression. The match between such events and the shame felt by some women seemed to be explained by underlying low self-esteem. Also, the researchers reported that even in depressed women who were experiencing difficulties in one area of their life (such as marital difficulties), a ‘fresh start event’ in another life domain (such as starting a college course) often seemed to help to set them on the pathway to recovery. Taken together, these findings offered important insights into differences in the predisposition to develop depression, the risk factors that may precipitate a specific depressive episode, but also social events that might modify the course of illness and be associated with recovery.

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