Our conceptualization and empirical understanding of the course of depression is beginning to change. This is largely a result of recent epidemiological and clinical data that suggest depression has a chronic course for many individuals. Treatment studies for chronic depression have found that response rates are consistently less robust than in studies of acute, episodic depression. As is such, investigators have begun to examine factors that impede treatment response among these patients. One such factor is the presence of comorbid Axis-II personality disorders. This study examined the moderating effects of Depressive Personality Disorder (DPD) on treatment outcome among 680 outpatients with chronic depression. Results suggest that DPD did not serve as a prognostic indicator of worse outcome after 12 weeks of treatment or at last observation carried forward. This was a secondary analysis of the data presented by Keller and colleagues (Keller, McCullough, Klein, Arnow, Dunner, & Gelenberg, 2000).

The issue of psychiatric co-morbidity is a serious public health problem occurring more and more frequently in the treatment of addiction and bringing with it various complications and often premature termination of treatment. The scoring system with a fixed set regime is still being used as the main instrument for treatment of addicted clients on the most specialized departments of psychiatric hospitals, although the effectiveness of the scoring system has not yet been clinically verified. The aim of this pilot study is to demonstrate and verify of the individual cases of clients with different categories of dual diagnosis, how they perceive the balance of the sanctions and rewards and fair setting in the context of the scoring system. Other goals are to find out and verify what is the influence of the scoring system on the motivation to change the behavior and success of treatment, what weaknesses clients with dual diagnosis perceive in this system and how they represent the treatment system, which would make them more fit and motivated to change behavior. Further, this study seeks to establish whether difficulties and obstacles on the way to stand up and go through the scoring system are different for individual dual diagnoses. A qualitative approach is used in the research part of the thesis....