The prevalence of depression among general hospital inpatients warrants routine screening and treatment, highlighting a significant psychiatric comorbidity in this population.
The available evidence suggests a likely prevalence high enough to make it worthwhile screening hospital inpatients for depression and initiating treatment where appropriate. Further, higher quality, research is needed to clarify the prevalence of depression in specific settings and to further explore the reasons for the observed heterogeneity in estimates.
Walker et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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