Depression and social functioning in general hospital in-patients

Medical disorders affect health outcome and general functioning depending on comorbid major depression in the general population

“…Epidemiological studies show that depression is associated with substantial work impairment [5,6], and experimental studies indicate that adequate depression treatment can substantially reduce work impairment [7]. Since major depression shows a consistent prevalence of about 15% in general hospital patients [8] and is associated with increased somatic symptoms, morbidity, mortality, health care utilization, and costs in individuals with comorbid medical disorders [9][10][11][12][13], it is recognized as an important and frequent comorbid condition in medically ill patients [9]. The effects of untreated major depression on general functioning are at least equal to those of many somatic conditions, including low-back pain, arthritis, diabetes, and cardiac disease [14].…”

Functioning is the cornerstone of life - Assessing chronic impairment in social functioning

“…The disorders mentioned above all have in common that in their diagnostic criteria, they all share the criterion that the pathology should result in clinically important impairments in social and occupational functioning or significant suffering (APA, 2000;Hengeveld & Koerselman, 2005). In the literature, the mental disorders associated with the highest rate of impairment in social functioning are mood disorders, psychotic disorders, and stress related disorders/anxiety disorders (Stewart et al, 1988;Arolt, Fein, Driessen, Dorlöchter, & Maintz, 1998;Calvocoressi, Libman, Vegso, McDougle, & Price, 1998;Hirschfeld et al, 2000;Hilsenroth et al, 2000;Moos, Nicol, & Moos, 2002;Startup, Jackson, & Bendix, 2002;Torres, Mendez, Merino, & Moran, 2002;Hay, Katsikitis, Begg, Da Costa, & Blumenfeld, 2003;Gaite et al, 2005;Rytsälä et al, 2005).…”

“…death, divorce) and loneliness. These factors can all become a problem for social functioning even without the occurrence of a disorder or long after the occurrence of a disorder (Arolt et al, 1998;Rytsälä et al, 2005). On the other hand, almost half of the patients with a mood disorder experiences a decrease in symptom-severity within a period of twelve weeks, enhancing full remission (and reaching the premorbid level of functioning).…”

Depressive Störungen bei körperlich Kranken

“…[27,37]). Hierbei könnte es von Bedeutung sein, dass die soziale Integration Depressiver bei gleichzeitiger kör-perlicher Morbidität außerordentlich zu variieren scheint, und zwar in Abhängigkeit vom Subtypus der depressiven Erkrankung mit größten Defiziten bei Patienten mit Dysthymien [5]. …”