Introduction
Depression is commonbut still ignored in general practice whereas it is a source of handicap, psychiatric and somatic morbidity.
Aims
To assess the punctual prevalence of major depression in primary healthcare centers in Tunisia.
Methods
A Transversal study during march 2007 was conducted in three primary healthcare centers in Hammamet city. All partients having sixteen years or older were evaluated by the Cluster A of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Patients meeting criteria for major depressive disorder had subsequently been assessed by the MADRS depression scale. A score greater or equal to 20 was considered as the threshold score for the diagnosis of major depressive episode.
Results
199 patients participated at the study (participation rate = 70 % ). The prevalence of major depression was 13 % and half of the patients suffered from severe depression according to MADRS. Depression affected more patients with low socioeconomic level (p = 0.037), suffering from a chronic medical condition (p = 0.0013), unmarried, divorced or widowed (p = 0.022). There were no statistically significance according to age, gender, living environment, alcohol abuse, and tobacco or life events. The frequency of suicidal thoughts or behavior was 3 % in the sample and 19 % among depressed patients.
Conclusion
Need of further general practitioners training in systematic screening of depressive trouble is still requested.
