[Relevance of the duration of depression for the social network and social support]

Abstract

The lack of supportive social ties seems to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of depression. As a review of related studies shows two important facts have almost been neglected: On the one hand the assessment of social resources are affected by depressive distortion of perception, on the other hand a longer lasting depression is likely to have a special impact on social network and social support. The following study shows distinct differences between individuals with primary (E; n = 25) and longer-lasting depression (L; n = 25) and controls (KG; n = 25) in the size but in the structure of their social network and social support, too. Besides, the elimination of the distortion of the data for the depressive bias was aspired.