A Profile Of Depressive And/or Anxiety Disorders In Outpatients Of A General Hospital

Background: The depressive and/or anxiety disorders are becoming more serious problems of public health. The recent studies have proved that the depression has a high morbidity, recurrence, sickness distribution and suicide rate. The Chinese sickness distribution report by WHO also indicated that the depression has already become the second most serious disease in China. The international study showed that the mental disorder morbidity of somatopathic people was obviously higher than ordinary people. In addition, the somatopathy with a combination of depression could seriously impacted its prognosis. Major depression Disorder is a curable disease, but the problem of its diagnostic and treatment rate needs to be urgently improved. Many studies have shown that many depression disturbed people informed doctors about their various uncomfortable feelings of bodies and some just went to the non- psychiatric departments of general hospitals. As a result, many depression disturbed people were misdiagnosed and mistreated. Therefore, it's important in both the practical application and the research field to make a study on the profile of depressive and/or anxiety disorders in outpatients of general hospitals and the recognition rate of the doctors in non-psychiatric departments.Objective: To describe the profile of depressive and/or anxiety disorders in outpatients of a general hospital. To describe the recognition rate of the doctors in non-psychiatric departments of a general hospital. And to describe the detection rate of depressive and/or anxiety disorders in outpatients in neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology and gynecology of a general hospital.Method: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted in neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology and gynecology of a general hospital in 2007. 619 outpatients were recruited within one month. All of the subjects completed the self rated Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale for screening, and the patients those HAD scores were 8 and above were interviewed by psychiatrists. Psychiatric diagnoses were made using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Then we can calculate the detection rate of depressive and/or anxiety disorders.Result: 351 (56.7%, 351/619) outpatients had 8 or more in HAD screen, and 281 (80.1%, 281/351) of them were interviewed by psychiatrists. 116 subjects were diagnosed as depressive and/or anxiety disorders. These patients had more trouble in living, working and sociality. After adjusted, the detection rate of depressive disorders in all outpatients was 18.4%, the detection rate of anxiety disorders in all outpatients was 13.2%, the detection rate of depressive and/or anxiety disorders in all outpatients was 23.6%, and the detection rate of depressive and/or anxiety disorders in outpatients in neurology, gastroenterology, cardiology and gynecology were 34.0%, 18.8%, 13.5% and 27.4% respectively. Only 18.9% of those patients were recognized.Conclusion It is noticeable that high prevalence of depressive and/or anxiety disorders was found in outpatients of a general hospital, and that low percentage of recognization they obtained.