Comorbid chronic diseases in depressed and non-depressed patients in family practice

Depression is one of the five most frequent disorders in primary care practice and often remains unrecognized. One of the reasons why depression often passes unnoticed is comorbidity - a number of different chronic diseases coexist with depression, especially in elderly patients.

The aim of this research was to assess the difference between depressed and non-depressed patients regarding somatic and mental comorbidity. The differences in drug use were also examined.

Five hundred successive adult patients visiting family physicians in Rijeka, Croatia, were polled using the Beck Depression Inventory and a general questionnaire which was created for the purpose of the study. The existing medical records were also used.

Elevated depression level was determined in 48.1% of the examinees. These patients were suffering from larger number of chronic diseases (X=1.23) than non-depressed patients (X=0.70; t=5.07; p<0.001; z=4.93; p<0.001), especially cardiac, mental, renal and osteomuscular diseases. Depressed persons used significantly more drugs (X=1.28) than non-depressed patients (X=0.58; t=6.10; p<0.001; z=5.78; p<0.001), especially antirheumatics, analgesics, sedatives, antidepressants, antiallergics and diuretics.

The research results point to a necessity of routine screening and early treatment of depression in patients with chronic diseases in primary care practice.