Depression Diagnostic of Patient Health Questionnaire-9: Pilot Study

Abstract

The primary care (PC) patients’ diagnosis of Depressive Disorder (DD), their therapy is the main strategy of world clinical medicine. To use Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in DD diagnostics in general medicine for PC physicians. 390 patients in PC were inspected with the help of PHQ-9 questionnaire and ICD-10. The statistic process has been made with the help of Pearson agreement criterion. Among them 270 (69, 7%) are women and 120 (30, 8%) are men. Average age of examination was 44, 3±6, 7. During the screening research 163(39, 6%) patients had no depression, 139(35, 6%) had mild depression (MD) or several symptoms. There were 2 diagnosed chronic diseases for one patient and 4 up-to-date physical complaints. MD patients often complained about periodic anxiety (27%), its intensification drawing to the evening (33, 8%), experienced social isolation (43, 8%). 28% patients in this group took pain relievers or sleeping pills. 58(14, 9%) of patients were diagnosed moderate (major) depression. In total, patients of this group had anxiety, panic and phobia (57, 9%), which masked the main symptoms of depression. 24(6, 2%) patients were diagnosed severe depression. Every patient in this group had 8 physical complaints and 3 chronic physical diseases. The variability of DD and physical diseases shows r±0, 63, P<0,001. PHQ-9 is a representative screening DD in PC. Taking into consideration the high level of anxiety symptoms in research, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) scale should be used.