Predictors of depressive symptom development differ from predictors of recovery from clinical depression in women. Interventions should be designed to reduce specific deficits in social support observed in particular study populations.

Objectives: These were to determine (1) whether there is a birth rank effect in eating disorders, and (2) whether all‐female sibships are overrepresented in the families of those with eating disorders. Method: The study sample consisted of 293 female patients referred from a defined catchment area, the County of Leicester, United Kingdom, to an eating disorders clinic. Diagnoses were made using DSM‐III and DSM‐III‐R. To discern birth rank effect, this core sample was expanded to one of 673 by adding published data sets to our own. Results: No evidence for either effect was found. Discussion: Biases which may have obscured genuine effects are discussed. A comment is made on the implication for family theories of causation of these negative findings. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 21: 335–340, 1997.

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CORRESPONDENCE for depression in the medically ill. He claims that satisfactory screening for the symptoms of major depression demonstrates the usefulness of pencil and paper tests to non-psychiatrists. However, the validity of the concept of major depression and the indications for tricyclic drugs in the medically ill with depression have not been satisfactorily established. Intergenerational conflict is widely accepted as a causative factor in many anorexics in Western cul ture. I regard the tensions which arise from cultural discrepancies between Asian parents and children as merely one specific instance of such conflict. It is highly likely that intergenerational conflict plays a major role in the development of eating disorders among Asian girls in Britain.