Presence and persistence of depressive symptoms in patient and community populations.

The authors used a questionnaire to assess presence and persistence of 16 depression-associated symptoms in two inpatient groups and a random community sample. Nondepressed inpatients were more likely than the community population to experience psychological symptoms of depression, but persistence of the symptoms was the same for both groups. In contrast, significantly more depressed patients than community respondents indicated presence for all but 2 symptoms and persistence for all but 1. Thus persistence of symptoms may be more specific to depression than mere presence.