Quality of life, diagnosis, and treatment of patients with major depression: a prospective cohort study in primary care

OBJECTIVE: To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics, adequacy of antidepressant treatment, and changes in quality of life of patients with major depression receiving follow-up care from primary care centers. METHOD: A cohort study was performed in which major depression patients were followed-up over a nine-month period. Several evaluation instruments were used, including the World Health Organization Quality of Life and the Quality of Life-Depression, Centers for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression questionnaires. RESULTS: The sample comprised 179 individuals, mostly female (73%), with a mean age of 38 years and mean education of 9 years. At the end of the follow-up period, 42% of the individuals still presented with major depression, 25% had complete symptom remission, and only 9% were properly treated with antidepressants. In relation to quality of life, there were significant differences especially between baseline and after nine months in almost all measures. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that depressive symptoms are poorly recognized and that treatment is often inadequate for patients followed-up in primary care units in the south of Brazil. Most of the patients continued to have symptoms of depression over the nine-month period which were associated with impaired quality of life.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lima,Ana Flávia Barros da Silva, Fleck,Marcelo Pio de Almeida
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria 2011
Online Access:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462011000300007
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