First-time hospitalisation for depressive and/or anxiety disorders and severe life events

Background: It has been suggested that the impact of antecedent life events differs between first and subsequent episodes of depressive or anxiety disorders. Method: We used the Bedford College methodology to determine the presence of severe events and/or major difficulties in two different groups of patients hospitalised for neurotic disorders, and in a control group of healthy subjects from the general population. Results: The experience of severe events and/or major difficulties was significantly higher in patients being hospitalised for the first time than in patients who had been hospitalised several times, or in the control group. This difference was observed for female patients only. Conclusions: Two hypotheses are put forward as an explanation of these results.