hf. .I. Nurs. Shrd.. Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 173-175, 1982 Printed in Great Britain ooze-7489/ 82/ 03017343 $03.00/ 0 0 1982 Pergamon Press Ltd. Anxiety and depression in general and psy chiatric nurses: a comparison DIEGO DE LEO, M.D., GUIDO MAGNI, M.D. and ANNA VALLERINI, M.D. Department of Psychiatry, Universityof Padua School of Medicine, Via Giustiniani 5. 35100 Padua, Italy Numerous psychometric studies have been carried out over the last 40 years on nursing staff. At the beginning, such studies generally concentrated on the cognitive aspects of nursing skills with the aim of improving the selection of candidates for training courses (Houlistion, 1946; Bannister, Slater and Radzan, 1962). More recently, greater attention has been given to other basic characteristics: motivation (Stauffacher and Navran, 1968), aptitude (Lorenzen and Moll, 1976) and personality (George and Stephens, 1968; Hoffman, 1970; Cordiner, 1970; Adams and Klein, 1970; Singh, 1971; Reavley and Wilson, 1972). Various investigators (George and Stephens, 1968; Reavley and Wilson, 1972; Caine and Smail, 1969) have discovered personality differences between nurses in general hospitals and those in psychiatric hospitals. According to Caine and Smail (1969), for example, the differences between the characteristics of the two groups are so great as to prohibit an interchangeability of roles. Tutt (1970) has emphasized the importance of preparatory training, which he sees as having a direct relationship to the aptitude of the candidates. For Reavley and Wilson (1972), the initial period of training has a selective effect: in their assessment of candidates’ personality using Cattell’s 16 PF, these investi- gators found no significant differences at the early stages of the training courses, while after a year of training such differences became relevant. Inversely, differences between candidates of two sexes turned out to diminish progressively with time. In this study we set out to assess any symptoms of anxiety or depression in the two groups of nurses. Materials and methods The subjects of our study were nurses at the General Hospital of Padua and psychiatric nurses from the Diagnosis and Treatment Services of Padua and province. These Services are within the structure of the General Hospital, and the personnel within them work as they would in any other hospital department. In the province of Padua we have made reference to a Psychiatric Service in the suburban zone, which has characteristics comparable to those of the city Services. 173