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Understanding depression and anxiety

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The figure is a vertical bar chart in which 15 stressful life events are labelled along the horizontal axis. The vertical axis is labelled odds ratio and is marked from zero to 18 at intervals of 2 units. Almost all the results were statistically significant. The odds ratios for both MD and GAD were highest where the associated life event was assault: 18 for MD and 10 for GD. For the other life events, both odds ratios were much lower, ranging between 2 and 8. For the majority of the life events, the MD odds ratio exceeded the GAD ratio, most notably for network death, with an MD odds ratio of 6 and a GAD ratio of 0.7. However, with both work problems and a lost confidant, the GAD odds ratio was the higher.

 1.2  Recent life events and stress