© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group, Royal College of Psychiatrists, & British Psychological Society
Aetiology
Existing psychological problems predict depression in primary care better than sociodemographic factors
Barkow K, Maier W, Ustun TB et al. Risk factors for new depressive episodes in primary health care: an international prospective 12-month follow-up study. Psychological Medicine 2002 May; 32: 595–608.[Medline]
QUESTION: What are the risk factors for depressive episodes in primary care?
Key Words: risk factors
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Population-based cohort study with 1 year of follow up. Outcome assessors were blinded to baseline assessments.
15 primary care centres in 14 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
Stratified sample of 2445 people without initial depression in the World Health Organisation ‘Psychological Problems in General Health Care’ study who attended a participating primary care clinic. All were younger than 66 years (mean age 41 years); 63% women.
Sociodemographic variables (age, gender, martial status, years of formal education, employment, location); psychological and psychiatric problems, and social disability measured using questionnaires at baseline.
Presence of a depressive episode at 12-month follow up measured using ICD-10 criteria. Logistic regression assessed the link between depressive episodes and risk factors.
After 12 months, 4.4% of participants had a new depressive episode. Factors related to the development of newdepressive episodes included repeated suicidal thoughts, previous depressive episodes, identification as a psychiatric case
Professor of Psychiatry of Old Age
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia
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