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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Recent trends in the incidence of recorded depression in primary care | | Author(s) | Greta Rait, Kate Walters, Mark Griffin |
| Journal title | British Journal of Psychiatry, vol 195, no 6, December 2009 |
| Pages | pp 520-524 |
| Source | http://bjp.rcpsych.org |
| Keywords | Depression ; Symptoms ; Diagnosis ; General practitioners ; Longitudinal surveys. |
| Annotation | There is a paucity of data describing how general practitioners (GPs) label or record depression. This study aims to determine incidence and sociodemographic variation in GP-recorded depression diagnoses and depressive symptoms. Annual incidence rates were calculated using data from 298 UK general practices between 1996 and 2006, adjusted for year of diagnosis, gender, age and deprivation. Incidence of diagnosed depression fell from 22.5 to 14.0 per 1000 person-years at risk (PYAR) from 1996 to 2006. The incidence of depressive symptoms rose threefold from 5.1 to 15.5 per 1000 PYAR. Combined incidence of diagnoses and symptoms remained stable. Diagnosed depression and symptoms were more common in women and in more deprived areas. In conclusion, depression recorded by general practitioners has lower incidence rates than depression recorded in epidemiological studies, although there are similar associations with gender and deprivation. General practitioners increasingly use symptoms rather than diagnostic labels to categorise people's illnesses. Studies using standardised diagnostic instruments may not be easily comparable with clinical practice. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-100223202 A |
| Classmark | ENR: CT: LK7: QT6: 3J |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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