[Fatigue and signs of depressive symptoms in general practice in Aquitaine]

An epidemiologic study of patients consulting General Practitioners (GPs) was conducted among GPs who usually collaborate on Aquitaine Sentinel Network, supported by the Department of Medical Informatics of the University of Bordeaux II. One day in June and one day in December 1992, each GP who participated in this investigation had to collect age, sex and reason for consulting about every patient who took medical advice. For every patient over 15 year old, on the day of the consultation or the previous week, the GP had to collect signs of depression, dysphoria, loss of interest or pleasure in the daily-living activities, insomnia, fatigue, inappropriate guilt, diminished ability to think or indecisiveness, recurrent thoughts of death...

In June, 79 GPs collected data on 1,500 patients and in December 80 GPs interviewed 1,400 patients. The main sign was fatigue (35%). Then, in frequency order, sleep disorders (26.5%), appetite and weight disorders (22.7%), dysphoria (18.7%) and loss of interest or pleasure for daily-living activities (16.7%) have been found. Among patients who present at least one of the signs of depression (more than 50% of the sample), half had associated handicap in every-day life activities. Major depression prevalence rate was respectively 5% in June and 6.3% in December whereas dysthymia was 4.3%.