Background: Anxiety and depressive disorders among patients seeking general medical health care have largely been under-recognized. Therefore, not only do the patients tend to lead a lower quality of life but also the load on the already overburdened health system is further increased. This study aims to assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression among patients attending the general medicine outpatient department and emphasize the need to screen for the same during the outpatient visits.
Material and methods: Patients attending the general medicine outpatient of a tertiary care government hospital were enrolled, screened for anxiety and depressive disorders using ICD-10 criteria, and assessed for severity using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The data was analyzed using SPSS and the means of scores were compared with the categories of individual demographic variables using t-test and ANOVA.
Results: In the present study, 39% and 48% of the study subjects were found to suffer from anxiety and depression respectively. The mean HAM-A and HAM D scores of the sample were 11.04 ± 9.30 and 9.50 ± 9.00 respectively. T-Test and ANOVA analyses were done for HAM-A and HAM D scores with the categories of the variables. Marital Status (F = 3.553, p = 0.017) showed statistical significance for HAM D scores.
Conclusion: Since a considerable number of patients attending medical OPD suffer from varying degrees of anxiety and depression, a short screening for psychiatric morbidity in patients with chronic conditions followed by a psychiatric consultation might be beneficial.
