We found that patients with chronic depression reported greater
emotional,cognitive-nonsocial and behavioral-nonsocial as well as
behavioral-social avoidance than both healthy control subjects and
patients with episodic depression.The study unraveled some theoretically important and clinically relevant differences between subgroups
of depressed patients(chronic,episodic)and may thus contribute to a
better understanding of the nature of chronic depression and guide
the refinement of existing treatment approaches.