Rating well-being and distress

There is insufficient research on rating psychological well-being and distress in clinical populations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the differential characteristics of instruments assessing well-being and distress in 20 remitted patients with affective (mood and anxiety) disorders and 20 healthy control subjects matched for sociodemographic variables. Remitted patients displayed significantly higher levels of psychological distress—as measured by Paykel's Clinical Interview for Depression (CID), Van Praag's Scale for Personality Disturbances and Kellner's Symptom Questionnaire (SQ)—and significantly less well-being—as measured by Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being (PWB) and the SQ—than control subjects. The correlations between scales of psychological distress and well-being were found to be complex in both patients and controls. Psychotherapeutic treatment of residual symptomatology in patients disclosed a differential sensitivity of the scales to changes. The results thus suggest that well-being cannot be equated to lack of distress (as implicitly endorsed by current psychiatric paradigms), and the need for a multidimensional assessment in stress medicine. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.