Screening for depression in a primary care setting in Vietnam

A Vietnamese Depression Scale (VDS) was developed in 1982 in the United States and has been used as a screening tool for depression and as the basis for a standardized interview to assess depression in the Vietnamese refugee populations. In this current study, the VDS was used in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to assess depression in patients who were already diagnosed with depression by Vietnamese psychiatrists and in patients presenting at a local primary care clinic. Of the 177 primary care clinic patients, 8.4% met the criteria for clinical depression based on the VDS. Results indicate a higher risk for depression among married and/or less than high school educated individuals. Discrepancies were found between the depression diagnosis by Vietnamese psychiatrists and VDS screening results. Among the participants interviewed who met the VDS criteria for depression, culture-specific phrases such as "desperate," "going crazy," and "low spirited and bored" were highly associated with symptoms of depression.