It is generally accepted that depression disorder is significant psychological problem among the patients with spinal cord injury(SCI) who are in the process of adjusting in their rehabilitation treatment.

The subjects conducted in this study was to assess depression tendency among SCI patients where proper social welfare program has not yet been fully established.

The subjects conducted in this study were 72 cases, 69 males and 3 females, ranging age from 18 to 58 years old(mean age 32.8±8.6 years) who were under treatment at rehabilitation clinics.

The most common causes of disability were industrial and traffic accidents(92.8%), the average treatment length was 2 year and 0.7 month. The levels of injury were 20 cervicals(26.4%), 20 thoracics(27.8%) and 33 lumbars(45.8%) and the extents of injury were (70.8%) complete and rest of were incomplete. The average Barthel index score was 33.35.

The administered method of depression scales were MMPI and SCL-90-R, and the scores were compared with the level of cord injured, the extent of injury, the marriage status and sports and outdoor activities.

The results obtained were summarized as follows.

1) The average depression score with MMPI on 72 SCI subjects was 59.41, 57.43 with the SCL-90-R.

2) 16.7% of subjects had depression reaction with MMPI and 15.3% with SCL-90-R.

3) There was no significant relationship between the level of injured cord or extent of injury and the depression score was observed.

4) The depression scale who were not participated in sports program was significantly higher than that of those who did participate.

5) The depression scale of married subjects was significantly higher than that of not married.

6) Those who are not married, short duration from injury, participants in sports activities and youger age cases were observed higher scores of Barthel index with lower depression scores.