Predictors of outcome in depression.

Several socio-demographic, family and clinical history variables, stressful life events, index episode characteristics, symptom severity, clinically and psychometrically assessed personality type and traits, and treatment were evaluated as potential predictors of multiple outcome criteria in a sample of 157 outpatients and inpatients meeting commonly used criteria for depression episodes. Outcome criteria included: severity scores on the final evaluation, improvement rate, impairment level of functioning, clinically rated treatment response, episode duration and relapse frequency in one year follow-up. Gender, personality structure and type, stressful life event characteristics, prior episode number, clinical status after the last episode, symptom length at intake, initial symptom severity, psychotic and endogenous features emerged as significant predictors of depression outcome in univariate analyses. The combination of independent variables by multivariate regression analyses improved outcome prediction.