Correction of Error in Diagnosis

To the Editor.  —An alert reader recently called our attention to an error in our report published in the September 1981 Archives (38:1048-1051), entitled "Cognitive Dysfunction and Impiramine in Outpatient Depressives." In the "Methods" section (p 1048), we stated that all 32 patients had received a diagnosis of primary depression by the Feighner criteria¹ and that most patients met the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC)^2,3 for a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, but that three patients had an RDC diagnosis of minor depressive disorder. The last statement was incorrect. As our reader pointed out, the Feighner criteria for primary depression exceed the severity of the RDC for minor depressive disorder. Chart reviews verified the fact that all three of those patients met RDC for major depressive disorder. (Four other patients correctly received diagnoses of intermittent depressive disorder by the RDC because of their longitudinal histories.)