Abstract

Background: Depression is a common mental disorder that puts constraints on quality of life among elderly in the form of sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self -esteem, disturbed sleep or appetite, fatigue and poor concentration. More than 150 million persons suffer from depression at any point of time in the world WHO has ranked depression fourth in a list of most urgent health problems worldwide Aims &Objectives: To find out the Prevalence of depression among patients attending medicine outpatient department in a tertiary care centre. Subjects and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in the General medicine outpatient department of a tertiary care Centre. Adult male and females attending general medicine outpatient department were included and psychosis, terminally ill patients were excluded. Results: Out of the 150 study participants majority are females (60%). The Prevalence of depression in the current study is56% . 39.1% of males and 60.6%of females among the study group are depressed. 62% of unemployed participants are depressed. Conclusion: The study highlight the importance of routine screening for depression in all patients in all healthcare settings and implementation of strategies for proper management and prevention of depression in those patients

Authors and Affiliations