[Depression 1. Clinical aspects and nurses' evaluation]

To review the recent advances made in evaluation and treatment procedures in cases of depression and their repercussions in nursing care. The growing efficiency of antidepressive medication, together with the importance given to community awareness of the upheavals which affect mental health, have modified the role nursing plays in evaluation of patients suffering depressive episodes. In this changing context, the therapeutic relationship between nurse and patient has developed into one of the pillars which sustain a correct and long-lasting stability in the depressed patient's state of mind.

Primary source information on treatment methods by nurses handling depressed patients published from 1995 through 1999 and identified in the Medline data base. In a second article, these same authors will evaluate the intervention and the follow-up procedures carried out by nurses caring for patients suffering from depression.