CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 732Health and Well-being StudiesHealth disparities and outcomesAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Social Support and the Outcome of Major Depression

George, Linda K., Blazer, Dan G., Hughes, Dana C., Fowler, Nancy·1989·British Journal of Psychiatry
DOI 10.1192/bjp.154.4.478
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

One hundred and fifty middle-aged and elderly adults with a diagnosis of major depression were assessed initially as inpatients, and were reinterviewed 6–32 months later. Both size of social network and subjective social support were significant predictors of depressive symptoms at follow-up, with baseline depression scores and other predictors of outcome status statistically controlled. Subjective social support was most strongly associated with major depression; this effect was significantly stronger for middle-aged than older adults, and for men than women. Differences in the effects of marital status, size of social network, and subjective social support also suggest the importance of distinguishing between involvement in and quality of interpersonal relationships.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1192/bjp.154.4.478

Cites

21 of 21 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Social activity is highly related to a subject's mental state and the risk of developing depression.

    “It is highly related to a subject’s mental state and the risk of developing depression [19,20].”

    From Mobile Sensing and Support for People With Depression: A Pilot Trial in the Wild (2016) · cites this paper as [19]

  • The study's results are consistent with previous studies indicating that people with substantial social connection tend to have better psychological wellbeing.

    “Our results are consistent with previous studies that indicate that people who have substantial social connection tend to have better psychological wellbeing [30].”

    From Predicting Brain Functional Connectivity Using Mobile Sensing (2020) · cites this paper as [30]

  • Having access to caring and compassionate relationships buffers against the impact of negative life events on depression, and improves recovery trajectories, post-treatment functioning and relapse prevention.

    “Having access to caring and compassionate relationships buffers against the impact of negative life events on depression, and improves recovery trajectories, post-treatment functioning and relapse prevention (e.g., [8, 34]).”

    From The development of compassionate engagement and action scales for self and others (2017) · cites this paper as [34]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
George, L. K., Blazer, D. G., Hughes, D. C., & Fowler, N.
Affiliations
  • Duke University (US)
  • Duke Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
George, Linda K.
ORCID
Venue
British Journal of Psychiatry
Publisher
Royal College of Psychiatrists
Published
1989-04
Volume
154
Issue
4
Pages
478-485
ISSN
  • 0007-1250 (ISSN-L)
  • 1472-1465
DOI
10.1192/bjp.154.4.478
OpenAlex
W2039408383
Cited by
732
References
20
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 33 · 2012: 29
FWCI
18.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 10503 d)
Locations
  • The British Journal of Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH040159)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Health and Well-being Studies
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords
major depressive disorder, social support, subjective support, social network size, depression outcomes, middle-aged adults, older adults, marital status, gender differences, interpersonal relationships, depressive symptoms
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Life Change Events, Male, Marriage, Middle Aged, Prognosis, Social Environment, Social Support

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review