Among cases, 1,477 subjects had MDD symptom-level data ascertained by the CIDI interview for the most severe episode in lifetime. Data on neurovegetative symptoms (appetite, weight, sleep and psychomotor disturbances) were disaggregated to code separately for increase, decrease and both increase/decrease. Subtypes of MDD were derived using two strategies. First, lifetime depression symptoms were used as input variables in a latent class analysis (LCA; Supplemental Methods) clustering persons on the basis of their endorsed symptom profiles. A 3-class model was found to fit the data best, similarly to previous results obtained applying LCA to NESDA patients with current MDD (extensive descriptions of subtypes and their correlates have been previously published (15;16;18)). Two classes were characterized by high severity and were labeled “severe typical” and “severe atypical” based on symptom profiles. Consistent with other latent modeling studies(12–16;18) the most discriminating symptoms were appetite and weight, decreased in typical and increased in atypical. Of note, LCA-subtypes do not necessarily overlap with DSM classification of melancholic and atypical. The third class was labeled “moderate” and was characterized by lower severity. For the analyses
