Abstract
A number of studies have shown that depressed patients experience more often objective as well as subjective stress and have poorer coping competencies than non-clinical controls, Objective: The rationale of this study is to investigate how broad coping deficiencies are in depressed persons on the individual as well as the interpersonal level. Methods: Differences in individual as well as dyadic (interpersonal) coping are examined in a sample of 39 clinically depressed patients and 21 former depressed persons living in a close relationship. Results: The results reveal that depressed patients differ significantly from remitted persons and controls in regard with both coping resources. Severely depressed patients not only cope individually in a less efficient manner, but also have a severe lack of dyadic coping resources, indicating that their coping capacities are generally reduced. As remitted patients did not differ from controls in their coping, our data support the notion that coping deficiencies are correlated with the maintenance of the depressive disorder and do not represent a stable personality trait. Conclusions. The findings highlight the importance of enhancing individual and dyadic coping skills in therapy of depressed patients in addition to other cognitive techniques.
Bodenmann, Guy