BMJ 2001;322:419-421 ( 17 February )

Education and debate

Should depression be managed as a chronic disease?

Gavin Andrews, professor of psychiatry. 

WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health and, School of Psychiatry, UNSW at St Vincent's Hospital, 299 Forbes Street, Sydney, 2010, Australia

gavina@crufad.unsw.edu.au

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 1970 L G Kiloh and I finished recruiting patients for a prospective study of depression in admissions to a new general hospital psychiatric unit. When we published the 15 year follow up we discovered that our patients had not done at all well.¹ Only a fifth recovered and remained continuously well, three fifths recovered but had further episodes, and a fifth either committed suicide or were always incapacitated. An English 15 year follow up study published at the same time showed identical results.² The obvious conclusion was that people admitted to hospital in the 1970s with a depressive illness did not have a good prognosis. In retrospect, I ask why more of those who relapsed did not return to us for treatment. These results are not atypical. A detailed 12 year follow up in US specialist care showed that patients on average had symptoms in 59% of weeks and met full criteria for . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Depression -a need for a more complec biopsychosocial approach

Paul Gilbert
bmj.com, 19 Feb 2001 [Full text]

Re: Depression -a need for a more complec biopsychosocial approach

Gavin Andrews
bmj.com, 21 Feb 2001 [Full text]

World Health Organization is managing depression as a chronic condition

JoAnne Epping-Jordan
bmj.com, 22 Feb 2001 [Full text]

Management of depression

Giovanni A Fava
bmj.com, 16 Mar 2001 [Full text]