Several limitations of our study must be noted. Our research was cross-sectional; thus, we could not evaluate the longitudinal effects of life events and depression was also measured cross-sectionally. Therefore, it is possible that depression developing in a longer time following very recent life events could not be identified in our study. In addition, we could not determine the timing of life events relative to depression. Furthermore, our study sample is a general, non-epidemiological and non-representative population sample based on volunteers and, therefore, may be subject to sampling bias, especially with respect to depression. In addition, all psychometric measurements including Brief Symptom Inventory and life events were based on self-report. We only subcategorised our life events into four, although validated, categories; it is therefore possible that some categories should be further refined. Although correlations between different categories of life events in the present study were weak, it is also possible that in isolated cases these life events are not independent of each other, which may influence the results.
