Do Maladaptive Attitudes 'Cause' Depression: Misconception of Cognitive Theory-Reply

In Reply.—  Until recently, data were lacking as to whether attitudes that are characteristic of actively depressed persons—perfectionistic, absolutistic, external-control oriented, etc—persist after recovery. Such data are now available. In all studies, including those cited by Riskind and Steer, these data have showed a considerable decline in dysfunctional beliefs as recovery ensues. Our depressive patients, when fully asymptomatic, did not differ significantly from a control group in their performance on the DAS. In close agreement with our findings, Simons et al¹ simultaneously but independently reported that the DAS scores of their depressed patients dropped with recovery from 154.3 to 97.5; the latter score is well within the normal range. Lewinsohn et al² summarized additional evidence in support of our position. Although the reports of Eaves and Rush³ and of Reda⁴ revealed a "maladaptive attitudes gap" between treated depressives and control subjects, we deduced that symptoms in neither group