Introduction: Stressful life events have a negative effect on mental health. Job loss is an event with a psychotraumatic character. Identification of the main sources of stress faced by the individual is essential in the management of depression.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the main risk factors that play a role in the onset and maintenance of depression.
Material and methods: we made a prosepctive study including 68 outpatients aged over 18, recently diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), without psychotic features, with initiated antidepressant treatment, being in evidence of First Clinic of Psychiatry Tirgu-Mures, between 01.01.2013-31.12.2013. To assess the severity of depression and to measure the antidepressant treatment efficacy we used Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D17) at study onset, respectively at endpoint. The parameters followed were: HAM-D17 score, response to treatment, the mean number of hospitalizations in a year.
Results: The group included 82.35% women and 17.65% men, mostly from urban areas, aged between 35 and 68, with a HAM-D17 score between 24 and 27. The major stressful life events inventory shows that 20.58 % of the patients were unemployed. The observed effects were more extensive in men.
Conclusions: How stressful life events exert their influence on mood is complex. The onset of depression often seems to coincide with a stressful event, although sometimes the event is only the revelator of an episode ready to trigger. The findings indicate the need of prevention politics for relapse of the disease, which is a disadvantage regarding the re-employment.