Abstract

Background: Depressive disorder affects at least 20% of women and 12% of men at some time during their lifetime. Current data suggest that social stressors in the onset of depressive disorder are more relevant to the first few episodes of the illness.Objectives: The main objective of our study is to assess the role of socio-demographic variables and stressful life events in the first episode depressive patients.
Materials and Methods: A total of 40 patients with a diagnosis of the first depressive episode were compared with a healthy control group to study the relationship between psychosocial factors and the first episode of depression. Individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis other than depression and those with longstanding medical illness were excluded from the study.
Results: The mean age for the study group was 33.1 and that for the control group was 34 and around 85% of patients fall between 18 and 45 years. Among the 40 patients, six were suffering from moderate depression, 20 from severe depression, and the remaining 14 patients were suffering from severe depression with psychotic features. About 97.5% of patients presenting with depression had significant life events of three and above, when compared to normal controls, only 22.5% reported the same.Conclusion: Sociodemographic factors such as female sex, rural residence, and family history of mental illness and substance abuse predispose to depression. The number of life events and accumulated stress scoring predisposes the onset of the first episode of depression. The knowledge of the role of psychosocial factors can be applied for providing support and primary prevention of depression.