The relationship between coping styles and mental health has received considerable attention, but the state effects on coping measures in a clinical sample are not well known. This study investigated changes in scores on the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations between two treatment phases (acute and remitted phase) in 49 outpatients with major depression or anxiety disorders. Task-oriented coping changed significantly between the treatment phases in both depressive and anxious patients, as analyzed by two-way multivariate analysis of variance. Results from repeated measures of multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that task-oriented coping was influenced by depression and emotion-oriented coping was influenced by anxiety. Avoidance-oriented coping did not change significantly over time in either depressive or anxiety disorders controlled for depressive and anxiety symptoms. The results of this study suggest that depressive or anxiety symptoms and treatment phase affect coping measurement. Copyright (C) 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.