The symptoms exhibited by 173 primary depressives from two out-patient clinics of two University Hospitals in Seoul were studied with the Hamilton´s rating scale for depression. The results were studied in detail and compared with the pre= vious reports of several authors in Korea.
It was, as the previous authors indicated, proved that somatic symptoms were the most dominant picture of the Korean depressives. The somatic symptoms such as loss of interest and work, general somatic symptom, somatic anxiety, gastrointestinal symptom were present in a significantly larger percentage and factor 4 named as somatization was uniquely loaded among diagnostic subgroups. On the other, guilt and suicide were present in 85% respectively of total depressives and in 94% respectively of bipolar and endogenous depressions This finding shows a sharp contrast to the pro-vious studies and common impression that guilt is hardly seen in Korea, even in the depressives as well as in other non-western cultures. This discrepancy is possibly due to the depth of interview: researchers are easily able to disregard the guilt and suicidal wish of patients in clinical setting because the guilt and suicidal wish are usually masked by superficial somatic symptoms.
Diagnostic subgroups, reactive, endogenous (including bipolar), involutional and miscellaneous depressions, manifested significantly different percentages in each symptoms and different loadings among each factors except those of somatic nature. The somtic symptoms such as gastrointestinal symptom, somatic anxiety, general somatic symptom, weight loss were equally distributed in all diagnostic subgroups and factor 4, somatization, was also uniiluely factor-loaded among the subgroups. This finding suggests that the somatic symptom is a unique nature of the Korean depressives. No sex difference was proved in symptom appeaance and factor loading except that depression and gastrointiual symptom were preant in a larger percentage In female khd factor 5, aoiftatlc delusiofi, in heavier loading on male. Social class seems to be hardly influenced on symptom appearance and factor loading. Only hypochondria manifested in a smaller percentage in higher social class.
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