Emotional reliance and social loss: effects on depressive symptomatology

A reactive form of dependence has been proposed to occur when a person is undergoing a period of substantial stress and change. The present study assessed 114 psychiatric inpatients categorized according to the presence or absence of social loss and their level of emotional reliance on others. Both emotional reliance and social loss were related to a variety of depressive symptoms. A significant interaction was observed between emotional reliance and social loss on depression severity as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). In general, subjects high in emotional reliance but experiencing no social loss displayed higher levels of depression than emotionally reliant subjects who had undergone a social loss. Patients reporting high emotional reliance on others, in the aftermath of a social loss, may be reacting to the loss and suffer from less-severe and less-chronic pathology. Subjects reporting excessive emotional reliance in the absence of any precipitating exit event may be displaying more of a trait-like pathology. Personality disorder pathology should occur with such frequency and intensity so it can be observed even when obvious eliciting stimuli are absent.