Context: Current evidence suggests that depression is much more prevalent among those with chronic medical conditions compared to the general population. Depression will rank second to cardiovascular disease as a global cause of disability by 2020. With ageing of the population physicians are called upon to treat a higher percentage of patients with chronic medical illness.
Objective: To assess the prevalence and incidence of depression and likelihood for new-onset depression in patients with self-reported longstanding disease, disability or infirmity in the sample of primary care attendees.
Method: Consecutive family medicine practice attendees aged 18 to 75 years were recruited and followed up after six months. Presence of longstanding disease, disability or infirmity was recorded.
Results: Prevalence of major depression was 8.9% in the group of patients reporting longstanding disease compared to 3.1% in the group without longstanding disease. Incidence of major depression after 6 months was 2.7% in the group with longstanding disease and 0.9% in the group without longstanding disease. For the patients with longstanding disease at the baseline it was almost 4 times more likely to have major depression after 6 months than for patients who did not report any longstanding disease at the baseline.
Conclusion: The associations between longstanding disease and depression are important in primary care setting.