The results suggest that decreasing seasonality of suicides could be a good marker of lowering rate of depression-related suicides in the population particularly among males.

Background:Although depressive disorders are common conditions in primary health care service, and many depressed patients consult their general practitioners, GPs have some difficulties in the detection and correct diagnosis of depression. Unrecognized and untreated depression causes great health and economic burden and also contributes to significant suffering, therefore the correct recognition of affective disorder in GP settings is an important healthcare target. The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of depressive disorders in general practices in Hungary and also to assess the sensitivity and specificity of different depression screening instruments.Method:In the present study the current prevalence of DSM-IV depressive disorders were surveyed among 984 primary care attendees in 6 GP practices in Hungary, using the Beck Depression Inventory and the PRIME-MD screening instrument.Results:The current prevalence rate of any PRIME-MD DSM-IV depressive disorders, including symptomatic major depressive episode, were 18.5% and 7.3% respectively. Beck Depression Inventory identified any current depressive disorders with 95% sensitivity and 56% specificity and the same figures for current symptomatic major depressive episode were 83% and 23%, respectively.Discussion:Our results are similar to those reported previously from Hungary and from other countries. The findings also indicate that the Beck Depression Inventory and PRIME-MD can help in detecting depressive disorders in primary care.

Objective. The aim of the research was to reveal the effect of antenatal depressive symptoms and trait-anxiety on folate supplementation. Higher levels of depression, and trait-anxiety were hypothesized to be associated with insufficient folate intake among pregnant women in early pregnancy. Methods. Level of depressive symptoms, trait-anxiety, self-esteem, social capital, self-related health, and demographic factors (age, number of siblings, marital, educational, employment, and socioeconomic-status) were established among 185 Hungarian women in the first trimester of their pregnancies. Depressive symptoms and trait-anxiety were evaluated with the Short Hungarian Version of the Beck Depression Inventory and the Hungarian version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory form Y (STAI-Y). Results. The higher levels of both trait-anxiety and self-esteem decreased the folate-intake significantly, OR=0.925 (95%CI=0.863-0.991; P=0.026) and OR=0.897 (95%CI=0.808-0.996; P=0.041) while depressive symptoms did not have an effect on it. The lower level of education (less than 8 elementary years) had similar effects (OR=0.228 [95%CI=0.064-0.817], P=0,023). The lack of trust had a significant role too (P=0.043): those, who were distrustful with other people, also had a lower chance of supplementation (OR=0.620; 95%CI=0.390-0.986). Conclusions. The way to increase the openness towards folate-supplementation leads through the treatment of psychological disturbances and the restoration of social trust.