The Involutional Depressive Syndrome

Although involutional melancholia is described with precision in the classical textbooks of psychiatry and has been maintained in the official nomenclature, it is uncommonly seen in current practice; some doubt has been expressed that it has ever existed as a distinct clinical entity. The evidence for its existence is reviewed and several explanations are offered for the apparent decline in the incidence of the involutional syndrome: among them, that the early use of effective therapy now prevents the full flowering of the characteristic symptomatology. A reinvestigation of this classical syndrome seems warranted.