Stressful life events preceding the onset of neurotic depression

Successfully admitted neurotic and non-neurotic depressives were compared with respect to stressful life events experienced in the 6 months before the onset of the illness. Almost equal proportions of neurotics and non-neurotics had experienced a single stressful event. Significantly more neurotics than non-neurotics had suffered multiple stressful events. An analysis of the multiple events revealed that many were related and involved a single calamity. For multiple unrelated stressful events no significant difference was found between neurotic and non-neurotic depressions.