Birth Order and Depressive Disorder

OBJECTIVE: To determine any relationship of birth order with depressive disorder. METHOD: This is a retrospective study from record of twelve hundred and eight patients who attended psychiatric department in OPD and wards of Isra University Hospital Hyderabad between January 2002 and February 2004 out of which 626 were diagnosed as cases of Depressive Disorder who were compared with the rest of the population. These were also studied with reference to gender, catchment area, and family type. Data were analyzed on 13th version of SPSS. RESULTS: Cases with depressive disorder were clustered in birth order-two; 36.42% of depression patients were found out to be birth order-two. The pattern remains almost the same irrespective of gender, catchment area, and family type. CONCLUSION: Birth-order two is found to be more vulnerable to depressive disorder in our sample.