Relevance of the duration of depression for the social network and social support

The lack of supportive social ties seems to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of depression. As a review of related studies shows two important facts have almost been neglected: On the one hand the assessment of social resources are affected by depressive distortion of perception, on the other hand a longer lasting depression is likely to have a special impact on social network and social support. The following study shows distinct differences between individuals with primary (E; n = 25) and longer-lasting depression (L; n = 25) and controls (KG; n = 25) in the size but in the structure of their social network and social support, too. Besides, the elimination of the distortion of the data for the depressive bias was aspired.