This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Richard M. Glass, MD; Daniel X. Freedman, MD

JAMA. 1981;245(21):2218-2220.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Because the different depressive disorders are the most common of psychiatric illnesses in the community,¹ a source of substantial morbidity and mortality, and very frequently encountered by all physicians, the pace of current progress is worth highlighting.

Epidemiology of Depression

Depression can occur as a normal mood variant, as a symptom of another psychiatric or medical disorder ("secondary depression"), or as a diagnosable syndrome ("primary depression"). Solid epidemiologic data based on reliable diagnostic criteria differentiate these disorders in the community, showing a point prevalence of 4% and a lifetime risk of 18% for an episode of "major depression"; adding less severe depressions, the rates increased to 6% and 25%. In medical populations the prevalence is even higher.² Most ill persons do not receive specific treatment, but do make relatively frequent visits to nonpsychiatric physicians.^3,4 Clinically significant depressions are about twice as common in women than men,⁵ . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Chicago

From the Department of Psychiatry, the University of Chicago.; Member, editorial board, The Journal.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?