Development of a Questionnaire-based Decision Rule for Classifying Depressed Patients

Abstract

In a previous paper (Pilowsky, Levine and Boulton, 1969) the classification of a group of 200 patients on the basis of their responses to a depression questionnaire and certain other attributes was described. The classification was carried out by using a form of numerical taxonomy based on information theory (Wallace and Boulton, 1968). By this technique the 200 patients were grouped into three classes, labelled A, B and C. Class A was regarded as a mixed group of ‘reactive’ depressions, Class B corresponded to ‘endogenous' depression and Class C comprised a non-depressive group.