Life Stress and Risk for Major Depression: A Latent Profile Analysis

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) affects over 280 million individuals and accounts for more years of ‘healthy’ life lost than any other medical condition. Half of all individuals with an initial onset of MDD will experience recurrences, whereas half will have only one or very few lifetime episodes. The Dual Pathway Model (DPM) proposes that major life stress may be able to distinguish risk for recurrent versus non-recurrent depression at first episode onset. Objectives were to use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to uncover profiles of risk in currently depressed individuals and determine whether major life stress prior to episode onset is associated with likelihood of profile membership. We hypothesized that those in a recurrent episode and those in a first-onset episode not preceded by major life stress will be more likely to belong to high-risk profiles. In contrast, those in a first-onset episode preceded by major life stress will be more likely to belong to low-risk profiles. The sample included 853 currently depressed individuals from six completed projects. Four latent profiles were identified: “Low Overall Risk”, “High Childhood Maltreatment, Low Symptom Severity”, “Moderate Overall Risk”, and “High Overall Risk”. Consistent with hypotheses, those in a recurrent episode were significantly more likely to belong to the moderate and high overall risk profiles than the low overall risk profile. Females were also significantly more likely to belong to the moderate and high overall risk profiles than the low risk profile. Contrary to hypotheses, those in a first episode without a preceding stressor were significantly more likely to belong to the low overall risk profile than the moderate and high overall risk profiles. Prospective studies are needed to make predictive claims about life stress and risk for recurrent depression. Nonetheless, the present findings have implications for the development of tailored intervention strategies with the highest chances of success based on a patient’s etiological profile.

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Brehaut, Eliana Claire Kohen

Advisor dc:contributor.supervisor

• Harkness, Kate

• Depression
• Life Stress
• Childhood Maltreatment
• Latent Profile Analysis
• Symptom Severity
• Personality
• Dual Pathway Model

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1974/33418

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:queensu.scholaris.ca:1974/33418