Is depression associated with excess mortality in the general community versus patients with specific illnesses?
This meta-analysis confirms a significant association between depression and excess mortality, while highlighting that publication bias and low study quality may lead to overestimation.
The authors could confirm the presence of a significant association between depression and excess mortality, although this association may have been overestimated because of publication bias and low study quality. Few indications were found that this association is stronger in community or specific patient samples.
Cuijpers et al. (2014) studied this question.