The screening of depressive disorder in 20- 64 aged people in Khorramabad

Depressive disorder is one of the most prevalent mental disorders and causes disability and early death. This disorder leads to increased economic burden for people and society. Mental disorders are the cause of 15 percent of disability and early death in developing countries. According to the joint report of W.H.O and the word Bank, depressive disorder is the first one among the ten most important causes of disability and disablement all over the world. Thus the diagnosis and treatment of this abnormality is very important for patients, families and society.

The aim of this cross–sectional study was to screen the depressive disorder in people aged 20-64 in Khorramabad city. Data were collected by Beck Depression Questionnaire that detects depression. Khorramabad city has tow region and each region has three areas. The sample (2740 persons) was selected from all areas by a clustered and systematic sampling method. Data were analyzed by statistical software.

33.4 percent had symptoms of depression. 25% of the affected patients had minor depression, 7.4% had moderate and 1% had sever depression. The prevalence of depression was highest in age group 50-64 years and lowest in age group 30-46 years. Depression was higher in women (34.3%) than men (32.4%). The highest rate of depression was in widowed (43.3%) and the lowest rate of prevalence was in married (29%). The rate of depression in non-specialists workers was higher (43.2%) than officers (16.2). The rate of depression in primary school and diploma person (17.4%) was higher than less educated or illiterates (7.1%) and university educated (8.6%) people. The lowest prevalence of depression was in persons with more than two million Rials salary (3.5%) and highest prevalence of depression was in persons with salary lower than two million Rials. the prevalence of depression was related to factors including age, marital status, educational status, occupation, family, salary and house status (p<0/001). But, there were not statistically significant related to sex, geographic area.

Mental health is usually neglected but, its prevalence and disability is not lower than infectious diseases according to the physician’s experiences and epidemiologic studies. Thus, appropriate diagnosis, management and treatment of it is very important for patinas, family and society and decreases economic and mental problems.