Prognosis of depressive disorders in the general population- results from the longitudinal Finnish Health 2011 Study.

•We followed up a nationally representative sample over eleven years.•Reliable hospital register data was used to account for nonparticipation.•34% of people with baseline MDD had a common mental disorder after 11 years.•Baseline BDI score predicted persistence of depressive disorder and mortality risk.•Those in remission still had residual symptoms and lower quality of life.