Ways of Coping with Stress among Patients with Depressive Disorders

Background: Experiencing stressful life events and ways of coping with them can predispose to the onset of depressive mood disorders, while depression itself can be responsible for severe stress and can weaken resilience to stressors. Thus, variables relevant to the onset of depressive episodes and the course of depression have significant relationships with coping strategies to stressors. The aim of this research was to evaluate the most commonly used stress-coping strategies in patients treated for depression compared to patients with anxiety disorders and to healthy subjects. Methods: The multidimensional coping inventory (COPE Inventory) by C. S. Carver, M. F. Scheier, and J. K. Weintraub, covering 15 stress response strategies included in more general and overarching coping styles, was used in the study. Results: Patients with depression differed from the healthy subjects in a statistically significant way. Statistical analysis showed that people with depression are less likely than healthy subjects to use Active Coping, Planning, Seeking of Instrumental and Emotional Social Support, Suppression of Competing Activities, and Positive Reinterpretation. In contrast, they are more likely to use Denial, Mental Disengagement, and Behavioral Disengagement compared to those not treated for mental disorders. The patients with depressive disorders, compared to the group of patients with anxiety disorders, scored significantly differently on stress coping strategies in only two types of actions taken in stressful situations. Conclusion: The patients with depression differed from the healthy subjects in terms of the highest number of the stress coping strategies assessed. Compared to the healthy individuals, a tendency toward an avoidant behavior style was prevalent among the depressed patients. There was no statistically significant difference between the patients with the first episode of the disease and recurrent depressive disorders in terms of stress coping strategies.