[Research on Depression in the GDR - Historical Lines of Development and Therapeutic Approaches].

BACKGROUND: Historical research has raised the issue of whether GDR psychiatry was isolated from Western influences to such an extent that an autonomous East German psychiatry developed. Taking a chronological approach and being based on a clearly defined range of topics, the objective of this paper is to identify specific contributions made by GDR psychiatry to academic research as well as the degree of its international orientation by focusing on the treatment and research on depression.
METHODS: We have performed a systematic review of the East German psychiatric journal "Psychiatrie, Neurologie und medizinische Psychologie" and a screening of all psychiatric textbooks that appeared in the GDR.
RESULTS: Although East German psychiatry was oriented towards Soviet as well as Western developments, some internationally used therapeutic or conceptual innovations reached East German clinics only with some delay. Yet, East German psychiatrists have also contributed their own, independent nosological and therapeutic concepts to research on depression. Pivotal figures included, among others, R. Lemke (Jena), D. Müller-Hegemann (Leipzig) or K. Leonhard (Berlin).
CONCLUSION: With regard to research on depression one cannot truly speak of an autonomous East German psychiatry. Developments in East and West were largely running in parallel. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.