Introduction: Depression is one of the five most frequent disorders in primary care practice and often remains unrecognized. One of the reasons why depression often passes unnoticed is comorbidity - a number of different chronic diseases coexist with depression, especially in elderly patients.
Aim: The aim of this research was to assess the difference between depressed and non-depressed patients regarding somatic and mental comorbidity. The differences in drug use were also examined.
Subjects and methods: Five hundred successive adult patients visiting family physicians in Rijeka, Croatia, were polled using the Beck Depression Inventory and a general questionnaire which was created for the purpose of the study. The existing medical records were also used.
Results: Elevated depression level was determined in 48.1% of the examinees. These patients were suffering from larger number of chronic diseases (X=1.23) than non-depressed patients (X=0.70; t=5.07; p<0.001; z=4.93; p<0.001), especially cardiac, mental, renal and osteomuscular diseases. Depressed persons used significantly more drugs (X=1.28) than non-depressed patients (X=0.58; t=6.10; p<0.001; z=5.78; p<0.001), especially antirheumatics, analgesics, sedatives, antidepressants, antiallergics and diuretics.
Conclusion: The research results point to a necessity of routine screening and early treatment of depression in patients with chronic diseases in primary care practice.