Characteristics of Non-psychiatric Patients with Major Depressive Episode from General Hospitals / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective: Describe the depressive symptoms and suicidal characteristics of patients with major depressive episodes treated in non-psychiatric outpatient and inpatient departments of general hospitals. Methods: Trained psychiatric nurses administered our depression screening instrument to 2 877 consecutive outpatients and 2 925 inpatients who were at least 15 years of age, able to complete the survey and had no serious communication difficulties. These subjects were identified from 35 level-1, 8 level-2, and 7 level-3 general hospitals in Beijing that were selected by stratified random sampling. Results:Compared to 5 604 patients without depression, a higher proportion of the 198 patients with major depressive episode were agricultural laborers (14.2% v. 7.9%, ?2=17.48), uninsured (45.2% v. 37.8%, ?2=4.41), inpatients (63.1% v. 50.0%, ?2=13.26), treated in internal medicine departments (the internal medicine, surgical, genecological, traditional Chinese medicine and other medical departments distribution of depressed versus non-depressed patients was 51.5%, 30.8%, 3.0%, 2.5%, and 12.1% v. 40.7%, 30.5%, 9.8%, 4.9%, and 14.0%, ?2=17.28), less educated [9(4) v. 10(5) years of formal education, t=-3.55] and relatively poor (median monthly per capita income in the family was 500 yuan v. 800 yuan, Z=-4.86) (all P