Over twenty years ago, an editorial in this journal called for further studies of the epidemiological and psychopathological characteristics of ‘recurrent brief depression’ in clinical samples in primary and secondary care settings. At that time, relatively little was known about the epidemiology or potential neuropsychobiology of the condition, and no evidence-based treatments had been identified. Two decades have passed, but there have been no substantial developments in understanding in the last ten years. The seeming withdrawal from research into recurrent brief depression is regrettable, given widespread concerns about the burden of depressive symptoms in young people. It seems reasonable to call once again for further investigations in clinical samples, this time with a focus on younger individuals.

Spontaneous remarks to the author concerning the experience of brief depressive episodes prompted an enquiry into the experience of these in the general population. The finding that a high proportion of subjects admitting to the experience of recurring brief depression, that the episodes were generally of less than 24 hours' duration, suggests that allowance should be made for such very brief episodes in future enquiry of the topic, as these would not be recognised by the criteria for recurrent brief depression in the ICD and DSM definitions. There was no association of duration of episode with either age or gender. There did not appear to be an association of episode duration with possible precipitants of stress, climatic conditions, season of year or dietary factors.