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Cited by 641Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMental Health Treatment and AccessPsychological Treatments and Disorders

Types of stressful life event and the onset of anxiety and depressive disorders

Finlay-Jones, Robert, Brown, George W.·1981·Psychological Medicine
DOI 10.1017/s0033291700041301
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Abstract

Synopsis: The notions of loss and danger are briefly described. Two groups of raters in London and Canberra were shown to be reliable in rating the degree of loss and the degree of danger associated with a sample of life events previously rated as ‘severe’ on a contextual measure of long-term threat. The life events were reported by 164 young women attending a general practitioner in London. The women were interviewed by a psychiatrist using the Present State Examination. Their psychiatric symptoms were rated by a team of raters who were ignorant of the life events reported by the young women. Three types of cases of psychiatric disorder of recent onset were diagnosed: depression, anxiety, and mixed depression/anxiety. The frequency of life events reported by these three types of cases as occurring in the year before the onset of their disorder was compared with the frequency of events in the same time period reported by a group of women without severe psychiatric disorder. The results were used to argue that severe loss was a causal agent in the onset of depressive disorder and severe danger was a causal agent in the onset of anxiety states in this sample. Cases of mixed depression/anxiety were more likely to report both a severe loss and a severe danger before onset. This supported the argument for recognizing a distinct group of mixed disorders in the classification of depressive illnesses.

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  • The individual registry-derived events most strongly related to risk for MD (including sexual and physical assault, assault with a weapon, spousal cancer and death, and severe psychiatric illness in a child) agree with other empirical studies of particularly depressogenic events.

    “a review of the individual events, derived from Swedish national registries, that were most strongly related to risk for MD – including sexual and physical assault, assault with a weapon, spousal cancer and death and severe psychiatric illness in a child – are both clinically face-valid and agree with other empirical studies of the kinds of events that are particularly depressogenic”

    From The development of an environmental risk score using Swedish National Registers and its impact on subsequent episodes of major depression (2025) · cites this paper as Finlay-Jones & Brown, 1981

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Authors
Finlay-Jones, R., & Brown, G. W.
Affiliations
Bedford College (GB)
Venue
Psychological Medicine
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1981-11
Volume
11
Issue
4
Pages
803-815
ISSN
  • 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-8978
DOI
10.1017/s0033291700041301
OpenAlex
W1990598466
Cited by
641
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 26
FWCI
12.52
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 10112 d)
Locations
  • Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Disorders
Keywords
life events, loss, danger, young women
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Life Change Events, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics

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