Depressed Older Patients With the Atypical Features of Interpersonal Rejection Sensitivity and Reversed-Vegetative Symptoms are Similar to Younger Atypical Patients

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The atypical depression (AD) subtype has rarely been examined in older patients. However, younger AD patients have been characterized as having more severe and chronic symptoms of depression compared with non-AD patients. DESIGN: Secondary data analysis by using analyses of variance and Growth Curve Modeling. SETTING: Clinical Research Center for the study of depression in later life. PARTICIPANTS: Depressed older patients (N = 248) followed over 2 years. METHOD: In a longitudinal study, we examined depression severity and chronicity in patients with major depression with some features of AD, specifically rejection sensitivity and reversed-vegetative symptoms (e.g., hyperphagia a..