Abstract

The present study was based on the clinical data summaries ("item sheets") of children who attended the Maudsley Hospital, London, England, during the late 1960s and early 1970s. These summaries were used to identify a group of 80 child and adolescent psychiatric patients with an operationally defined depressive syndrome. The depressed children were individually matched with 80 nondepressed psychiatric controls on demographic variables and nondepressive childhood symptoms by a computer algorithm. At follow-up, on average 18 years after the initial contact, information was obtained on the adult psychiatric status of 82% of the total sample. Adult assessments were made "blind" to case/control status. The depressed group was at an increased risk for affective disorder in adult life and had elevated risks of psychiatric hospitalization and psychiatric treatment. They were no more likely than the control group to have nondepressive adult psychiatric disorders. These findings suggested that there is substantial specificity in the continuity of affective disturbances between childhood and adult life.