Sajid Abbasi, Muhammad Tahir, Muazam Abbas Ranjha, Najma Javed, Mumtaz Ali Khan.
Proportion of Unrecognized Depression among patients Attending Medical Outpatient Department, Federal General Hospital, Islamabad.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;7(2):105-8.

Background: Depression is a common mental disorder globally and frequently associated with adverse life events, such as the loss of an important person, relationship or loss of health. The current study was carried out to determine the proportion and associated factors of unrecognized depression among patients visiting medical Out Patient Department (OPD at Federal General Hospital (FGH), Islamabad. Methods: A cross section study conducted during August-October at FGH, Islamabad comprising 290 patients coming to medical OPD with different complains. PHQ-9 questionnaire was used. Proportion of undiagnosed depression was calculated. Chi-square test was used to find dependence of severity of depression with sociodemographic factors. Results: Majority of the participants were females 63%. The most affected age group was 16-35 years. Overall prevalence of depression was 236(81%) with severe depression of 3.8%. Women had higher prevalence 158(53%) of all depression symptoms compared with men 78(27%). Participants with education up to metric (p 0.02), females (p .03) and being married (p 0.04) were found to statistically associated with severity of depression. Conclusion: Proportion of undiagnosed depression is very high and females, low education and being married remained more affected with undiagnosed depression. It is recommended to initiate an awareness complain to make people aware that early diagnosis of depression will lead to better outcome.

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