A comparative study of involutional depressive patients in French Canada and in Hungary.

The data dealing with 200 involutional depressive patients who were treated in Quebec City and in Budapest are presented. A questionnnaire prepared for this purpose is produced and evaluated. Half of the Canadian and 80% of the Hungarian patients were personally interviewed by the author. Those patients with organic brain syndromes were not included in the population studied. Besides many similarities between the two groups, there were also symptomatological differences observed, e.g. the agitated type of involutional melancholy occurred twice as often in Canada as in Hungary, the apathetic cases were rarer in Canada, and the illness began earlier among Canadian women. Self-blame in Canada was often linked to religious observation. Two typical syndromes in male and female patients are detailed as special disease patterns. The symptomatology of this disorder has become identical in the last few years in both countries, therefore it is improbable that a similar study in the future could point out the differences described here.