Life Stress and Psychiatric Disorder: Applications of the Clinical Approach (IN: Stressful Life Events: Their Nature and Effects, ed. by B S Dohrenwend and B P Dohrenwend)

A retrospective study was used to study 53 patients, aged 18-65 at the Yale New Haven Hospital. 3 groups were used: 1)suicide attempters, 2)depressives from a previous study, & 3)general population controls. Group 1 reported four times as many life events than group 3 & twice as many as group 2. Group 3 also reported more introductions of people into their social field and more major and intermediate events than group 2, as well as more undesirable and uncontrolled events than both groups.