Prevalence of Unrecognized Depression in Patients Admitted in Medical and Surgical Departments of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Comparative Analysis, Karachi, Pakistan (P4.177)

Objective The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of unrecognized depression in medical and surgical department using PHQ-9 questionnaire and to compare the incidence of depression in acute and chronic medical and surgical patients. Material and Methods This cross-sectional comparative analysis was conducted for a period of one year. All patients admitted in the medicine and surgical departments were enrolled in the study. Patients with known history of depression or on anti-depressants or on anti-psychotics, or with suicidal attempt were excluded. The prevalence of depression was then seen in surgical and medical patients. Depression and its severity was seen in both genders, acute and chronic disorders. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0). Results A total of 748 patients were enrolled in which cohort of 399 and 349 patients were enrolled from the medicine and surgery department respectively. Gender was not found to be significantly associated with depression in medical (p= 0.367) and surgical patients (p=0.606). Minimal/no depression was found in 48 (12[percnt]) medical patients and 131 (37.5[percnt]) surgical patients. Moderately severe and severe depression was found in 33 (8.3[percnt]) and 37 (9.3[percnt]) in medical patients respectively. While in surgical patients moderately severe depression was seen in 42 (12[percnt]) and severe depression was seen in 9 (2.6[percnt]) patients. Depression was significantly associated with acute and chronic medical disorders with a p<0.001. Conclusion Unrecognized depression is a major health burden in Pakistan, and depression was significantly associated with acute and chronic medical disorders.