Depression in the community: results of the first Italian survey

Abstract

The 6-month prevalence of depression in the Italian community was evaluated by means of the modified-Mini-International-Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) administered with a computer-prompted interview to a representative panel of 3550 individuals. Major depression and minor depression accounted for 8.0% and 2.9% of the cases, respectively. Major depression was 1.3 times as prevalent in females (compared to males), while minor depression was 1.6 times as prevalent in males. Prevalence of major depression was maximal (11.9%) in subjects aged 30-49 years, and minimal (4.1%) in subjects aged 60 years or older. These results confirm prevalence figures for depression in the community reported with the modified-MINI for other European countries, and support the use of telematic data acquisition for health-related general population surveys.

Antidepressant drug prescribing among elderly subjects: a population‐based study

“…In Canada (Bland et al, 1988), USA (Blazer et al, 1994;Kessler et al, 1994) and Europe (Tylee et al, 1999), prevalence rates of major depression were lower in the elderly than in young and adult people. In Italy, a survey conducted in the community found no increase in the prevalence of major and minor depression with age (Dubini et al, 2001). The present study highlighted that rates of antidepressant treatment in the elderly were higher than those calculated in adults, and that the male/female ratio of 1/2 was present in those below 80 years of age only, then progressively decreased and disappeared in those above 90 years of age.…”

An Investigation of Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among a Sample of Regular Ecstasy Consumers

“…This is higher than a recent report of 6-month prevalence of depression (11%) in the general population [53] and the 12-month prevalence of affective disorder (6.2%) in an Australian normative study [41] , but similar to levels of self-reported depression among other samples of ecstasy users [6,7] . However, it should be noted that the above general population estimates were based on a diagnostic interview rather than self-report data, which may contribute to the discrepancy.…”

Antidepressant drug prescribing in Italy, 2000: analysis of a general practice database

“…Italian data are scant on this issue. A recent survey conducted in the community found a 9.1% prevalence of major depression and 2.3% of minor depression in females; in males the same ®gures were 6.9% and 3.6% [17]. There was no increase with age.…”