This article reports the prevalence and course of depressive symptomatology and adjustment scores in a sample of 46 individuals consecutively discharged from an Australian Spinal Cord Injury Unit over 3 years. The trend was for depressive symptomatology to increase immediately following discharge from hospital but to decrease significantly by 36 months post discharge. Self-rated adjustment scores were consistently high but the variation was not statistically significant over time. Repeated measures logistical regression analysis of determinants of depression revealed that two variables, overall self-rated adjustment (p = .002) and the presence of pressure sores (p = .002), were statistically significant determinants of depressive symptomatology in this group of people with spinal cord injury.

depression, longitudinal studies, psychological adjustment, rehabilitation, spinal cord injuries
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