Prevalence of major depression among community pharmacists practicing in Iran: A cross sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Major depression is known to carry the heaviest burden of disability among mental and behavioral disorders. It may have negative impact on both personal and professional level. There have been several studies investigating prevalence of major depression among different population. However, its prevalence among a group of healthcare professionals, namely community pharmacists have not yet been studied. Aims The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of major depression across a sample of Iranian community pharmacists. Methods One hundred and eighty surveys were distributed among community pharmacists attending different continuous medical education programs from all over the country during winter 2015. Beck Depression Inventory was used to measure characteristic attitudes and symptoms of depression. Descriptive statistics were utilized to find prevalence of mild, moderate or severe depression among the study sample. Independent sample t -tests were used to find possible differences between age and gender of the respondents and prevalence of depression. Results Survey response rate was calculated to be 84.7%. According to the results, 72.7% of the respondents were categorized to be normal, whereas 12.8% were found to have mild, 11.7% moderate, and 2.8% severe depression. Moreover, no significant relationship was found between age of the respondent and prevalence of depression ( P >0.05). However, the prevalence was found to be higher among females ( P Conclusions Prevalence of depression among community pharmacists was reported to be low. However, it may affect healthcare services that they provide in the healthcare system. Further studies with larger sample size are suggested.