Table 2.
Comparison of socio-demographics and clinical characteristics between patients with a longer/shorter duration of untreated illness
| Variables | A longer DUI (>12 months) group (n = 26) | A shorter DUI (≦ 12 months) group (n = 69) | Analysis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | χ 2 | df | p | |
| Gender (Male) | 16 | 61.5 | 41 | 59.4 | 0.04 | 1 | 0.85 |
| Marital status at the first treatment point | |||||||
| Never married (Single) | 16 | 61.5 | 23 | 33.3 | 6.21 | 1 | 0.01 |
| Living alone at the first treatment point | 9 | 34.6 | 9 | 13.0 | 5.72 | 1 | 0.02 |
| Working status at the first treatment point | |||||||
| Unemployed | 16 | 61.5 | 38 | 55.1 | 0.32 | 1 | 0.57 |
| Subtype of depression | |||||||
| DSM-IV melancholic features | 12 | 46.2 | 19 | 27.5 | 2.98 | 1 | 0.08 |
| Psychiatric comorbidities | |||||||
| Any Anxiety Disorders | 8 | 30.8 | 19 | 27.5 | 1.00 | 1 | 0.76 |
| Eating disorder | 1 | 3.8 | 1 | 1.4 | 0.53 | 1 | 0.48 |
| Patient’s-report of childhood abuse | 1 | 3.8 | 6 | 8.7 | 0.65 | 1 | 0.67 |
| Reported victims of childhood bullying | 6 | 23.1 | 15 | 21.7 | 0.02 | 1 | 0.89 |
| Family history of mood disorders | 4 | 15.4 | 10 | 14.5 | 0.01 | 1 | 1.00 |
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD | t | df | p | |
| Age (years) | 40.7 | 9.9 | 41.4 | 10.0 | -0.31 | 93 | 0.76 |
| Total education (years) | 15.4 | 1.6 | 15.1 | 2.1 | 0.65 | 93 | 0.52 |
| Age onset of the first depression (years) | 34.0 | 11.3 | 36.8 | 10.7 | -1.1 | 93 | 0.27 |
| Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Total) | 22.2 | 3.9 | 22.3 | 4.0 | -0.12 | 93 | 0.90 |
| Median [IQR 25th 75th percentile] | Median [IQR 25th 75th percentile] | p* | |||||
| DUI; Duration of untreated illness (months) | 20.5 [15.0 44.0] | 2.0 [1.0 4.0] | <0.001 | ||||
IQR: inquartile range.
*Mann- Whitney’s U-test.