Life events and depression in Japan

Abstract

The relationship of life events to the onset of depression as well as the relationship between positive family history and reactivity to stress were investigated. Our results indicated that life stress in general plays an important role for women in the onset of depression and that undesirable events and problems of work specifically play a role in the onset of depression. The dichotomy of reactive and endogenous depression was not supported based on our result that no relationship was observed between the presence of familial loading and reactivity to stress.