Published 28 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4456
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4456

News

NICE guideline aims to tackle depression in people with chronic physical health

Susan Mayor

1 London

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

Clinicians should check for depression in people with chronic physical health problems and ensure that any drugs they prescribe have a low risk of side effects and interactions, says the clinical watchdog for England and Wales.

Clinical guidance published this week by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recognises the fact that depression can be three times more common in patients with long term physical health problems than in patients without and affects as many as one in five people.

Awareness of this, however, is sometimes lacking, John Hindle, consultant physician in the care of the elderly, Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board, Wales, and a member of the guideline development committee, said: "There is a lack of awareness of how common depression is in people with chronic physical health problems, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

"Depression can worsen a patient’s physical health condition, affect . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Depression in adults, including those with a chronic physical health problem: summary of NICE guidance
Stephen Pilling, Ian Anderson, David Goldberg, Nicholas Meader, Clare Taylor, and On behalf of the two guideline development groups
BMJ 2009 339: b4108. [Extract] [Full Text]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ