Symptom profiles of depression among general medical service users compared with speciality mental health service users

Abstract

These results suggest that there are qualitative differences in depression presenting in general medical care compared with specialty mental health care and call for a re-conceptualization of depression in the general medical setting.

Clinical importance of HIV and depressive symptoms among veterans with HIV infection

“…19 This is perhaps due to the provider's perception that patients with depression exaggerate or somatize their physical symptoms, 38,39 although this is not always the case. 40 Providers may also express different attitudes toward their depressed compared to nondepressed patients. In one study, patients identified as``difficult'' by their providers were more likely to be depressed and more likely to seek care.…”

Psychological treatment of depression in primary care: a meta-analysis

“…[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] In these 15 studies, a total of 1505 patients participated (804 in the psychological treatment conditions and 701 in the control conditions). Selected characteristics of the studies included are presented in Table 1.…”

“…Patients enrolled in primary care generally have a less progressed developmental stage of their illness than patients in specialised healthcare settings, 21,22 and this may be related to the effectiveness of psychological treatments. However, only one earlier meta-analysis has integrated the results of studies on psychological treatments of depression in primary care.…”

Are higher rates of depression in women accounted for by differential symptom reporting?

“…Prior studies from the Baltimore ECA have reported one-year prevalence estimates for affective disorders among women of 5% and among men of 2.3% (Robins and Regier 1991), but no previous study from the ECA has investigated gender differences in symptoms reported that might account for differences in rates. In the Subjects and methods section, we discuss a model that has been applied to similar problems to compare symptoms of depression according to age (Gallo et al 1994; Gallo et al 1999), ethnicity (Gallo et al 1998), and health services setting (Suh and Gallo 1997), to examine responses to the Mini-Mental State Examination for bias according to level of educational attainment (Jones 1997), and to examine differential item functioning in responses to activities of daily living/instrumental activities of daily living tasks according to age and gender (Fleishman et al 2002).…”