Background and objectives: Almost every tenth patient of a general practitioner (GP) suffers from depression. However, only 20-25% of these patients are correctly diagnosed during a GP consultation. How do international guidelines for depression in primary care initiate structured diagnostic procedures for depression?
Methods: We performed a systematic literature search on guidelines for the diagnosis of depression with focus on primary care. The quality of the guidelines was rated according to base of evidence, existence of pilot studies, data on implementation, presentation and specificity for primary care settings, and conflict of interest. We also screened whether and how the guidelines comment on the initiation of structured diagnostic procedures for depression.
Results: Of the 22 identified guidelines, only 15 address primary care. Only 3 of these were tested in pilot studies, 3 provided data on implementation, 9 were evidence-based. The best guideline (6 out of 6 criteria met) is available in Dutch and established for The Netherlands only. We ranked the guidelines from NHG, VHA and ICSI as very good in terms of methodological quality. They present 'red flags' that initiate structured diagnostic procedures by 'opportunistic screening'. This is followed by the application of a self-rating instrument and an ICD-10-based diagnostic checklist identifying up to 98% of all patients with depression in a given consultation time of 10 minutes on average.
Conclusion: Based on these criteria a national diagnostic depression guideline should, from our point of view, explicitly include keys such as "red flags" for the initiation of structured diagnostic procedures.