Somatic Discomforts Among Depressed Women

An inventory of 69 somatic discomforts was used to identify those discomforts most likely to be concurrent with a clinically severe depression in a sample of 223 recently hospitalized women. The inventory provided scores for each of 15 classes of discomfort. The classes of discomfort with the highest average score for the depressed sample at admission also yielded significantly lower scores for a nonpatient control sample (P less than .05). The four classes of discomfort most pertinent to depression were designated autonomic, wakefulness, dry mouth, and fatigue. The items of discomfort contributing to these classes showed a statistically significant diminution in severity during treatment (P less than .05).