We entered the number of patients and control group members, mean age, percentage of girls and of members of ethnic minorities, the country of data collection, year of publication, type of
illness,
duration of
illness, the sampling procedure (1 = probability samples, 0 = convenience samples), the use of a control group (0 = yes, 1 = comparison with test norms), equivalence of patients and control group (1 = yes, 2 = not tested, 3 = no), the rater of depressive symptoms (1 = child, 2 = parent, 3 = teacher, 4 = clinician), the measurement of the variables, and the standardized size of between - group
differences in depressive symptoms.
Τhe UCLA results showed no
differences in between sub-groups of patients (
illness duration) considering the social loneliness.
There were however, no significant
differences in terms of female to male ratio (72 % v 58 %, P = 0.2) or
duration of
illness at initial assessment (5.6 years v 4.5 years, P = 0.15).