The Borderlands of the Depressive States

¹ Psychiatrist Superintendent, Dandenong Psychiatric Centre, Victoria, Australia

The classification of depressive states is discussed.

Observations of clinical similarities in the descriptions of patients given by three authors have suggested that there may exist a constitutionally independent entity lying in the borderlands between the depressive states and the psychoneuroses.

This condition shows an acute onset, is most often associated with a premorbid obsessional personality and past separation anxiety, and may be precipitated by separation or by physical illness. The prominent clinical feature is a phobic anxiety associated with free floating anxiety, and other symptoms include depressed mood, obsessional and somatic complaints. It is distinctly episodic. Antidepressant therapy has been found successful, but psychotherapy and E.C.T. are ineffective.