Sardar Zakariya Imam, Saad Hasan Hashmi, Malick Gazanfar Islam, Murtaza Anwar Hussain, Fatima Iqbal, Mahwish Ilyas, Islam Hussain, Syed Haider Naqvi, Murad Moosa Khan.
Liaison Psychiatry and Depression in medical inpatients
J Pak Med Assoc Mar 2007;57(3):159-61.
The Aga Khan University, Karachi

Objective: To assess the frequency of depression among hospitalized patients, the socio-demographic variables associated with depression and the number of cases referred by physicians to Psychiatry. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out at the Aga Khan University Hospital Karachi. An anonymous Urdu version of the WHO-developed self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ) was administered to inpatients meeting the inclusion criteria. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 13.0. Result: Of the 225 patients approached, 178 completed the questionnaire (men= 45.2%, women = 54.8%). The mean age of the sample was 45.2 years. Out of the total 30.5% of patients were identified as having probable depression, among which housewives were more likely to be depressed compared to others (p=0.031). Among variable comparison, there with secondary school education or below and those with psychiatric co-morbidities, showed significantly greater prevalence of depression (p=0.003) and (p=0.005) respectively. Attending physicians correctly diagnosed 7 (13%) patients and referred only 3 patients to Psychiatry over the previous month. Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among inpatients is comparable to that in the general population. Being a housewife, level at or below secondary school education and having a past psychiatric history are significant factors associated with depression in medical inpatients. A very small number of depressed cases were referred to a psychiatrist (JPMA 57:159;2007).

Category: Psychiatry
Keywords: Depression.

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