A distress-continuum, disorder-threshold model of depression: a mixed-methods, latent class analysis study of slum-dwelling young men in Bangladesh.

The results indicate that LCA can be a useful empirical tool to inform the 'staged model' of depression. In the findings, a subset of distress symptoms was continuously distributed, but other acute symptoms were only present in the class with the highest distress severity. This suggests a distress-continuum, disorder-threshold model of depression, wherein a constellation of impairing symptoms emerge together after exceeding a high level of distress, i.e., a tipping point of tension heralds a host of depression symptoms.