Prevalence of recognised and unrecognised depression among medical and surgical patients in a tertiary care hospital

Objective: To observe the prevalence of recognised and unrecognised depression among in-patients. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2012 to May 2013 at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, and comprised patients admitted in the Medicine and Surgical departments at the time. Patients with known history of depression or on anti-depressants or on anti-psychotics, or with suicidal attempt were excluded. The prevalence of unrecognised depression was then perceived using Patient Health Qurstionnaire-9. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 20. Results: Of the 1180 patients, 432(36.6%) either had history of depression or on were on anti-depressants. The study sample, as such, comprised 748(65%), and of them 399(53%) were from the Medicine and 349(47%) patients were from Surgery department. Prevalence of recognised depression was 36.6%; 48% in Medical and 14% in Surgical patients. Unrecognised depression was 51.2%; 45.3% in Medical and 53.6 in Surgical patients. Overall prevalence was 87.9%; 93.4% in Medical and 53% in Surgical patients. Gender was not found to be significantly associated with depression in Medical (p=0.367) and Surgical (p=0.606) patients. No depression was found in 48(12%) Medical patients and 131(37.5%) Surgical patients. Conclusion: More than one-third of in-patients had co-morbid depression diagnoses, mostly unrecognised by their clinicians.