Perceptions of depression among never-depressed and recovered-depressed people

We assessed perceptions of the impact of depression among two groups of currently nondepressed adults (Beck Depression Inventory score less than or equal to 9). The recovered-depressed (RD) participants (n = 25) had a history of major depressive disorder but had been recovered for at least 2 months since the most recent depressive episode. Never-depressed (ND) participants (n = 25) had no history of major depressive disorder. Participants completed the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (Coyne & Calarco, 1995) as an assessment of beliefs about the experience of having been depressed. RDs rated depression as having more severe aftereffects than did the NDs. They reported feeling more loss of energy, being a burden on others, need to hide depression symptoms, strength drawn from depression, need to maintain a balance in life, fear of relationships, fear of taking risks, fear of recurrence of depression, and sense of stigma. These results replicated the findings of Coyne and Calarco (1995) and extended them to a more fully recovered population. These perceptions are important to understand because a person's ideas about depression may influence treatment outcome and susceptibility to future episodes.