The Persistence of Depressive Symptomatology Among Prepaid Group Practice Enrollees: an Exploratory Study

This exploratory study examines the persistence of depressive symptomatology as measured by the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depressive Scale (CES-D). Over as 12-month period, half of the group of 309 prepaid group practice enrollees reporting depressive symptoms at the beginning of the interval also had high scores on the CES-D at the end of the interval. Sociodemographic characteristics did not predict persistence of depression. Persistence of depression was positively associated with initially reporting cognitive and affective types of depressive symptoms, the presence of physical illness, the seeking of psychiatric treatment, and the receipt of psychotropic drug prescriptions.