Stable trait components of hopelessness: Baseline and sensitivity to depression

Hopelessness (H) plays an important theoretical and practical role in depression. The authors hypothesized that a patient's H is comprised of(a) a baseline level of H when not depressed and (b) an increment in H related to the severity of depression at the time and the person's rate of increase in H as a function of severity of depression (sensitivity). Baseline and sensitivity are explanatory stable traits; H and depression are observed, time-varying states. The corresponding statistical model described well the longitudinal data of 316 participants. Baseline and sensitivity were uncorrelated and correlated with different clinical and demographic variables. Baseline predicted a future suicide attempt; sensitivity and H when depressed did not. It may be useful to ask ''How hopeless is this person when not depressed and how much more hopeless is he or she when depressed?'': rather than simply ''How hopeless is this depressed person?''