TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2004//
TI  - Presence of suicidality as a prognostic indicator
JO  - Journal of postgraduate medicine
A1  - Malhotra, K.
A1  - Schwartz, T.
A1  - Hameed, U.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Suicidal symptoms in depression are often thought to predict a higher severity of illness and a worse prognosis. AIMS: To determine if suicidal ideation at the time of treatment for major depression can predict response to antidepressant medication in primary care. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A retrospective analysis of subjects receiving anti-depressant drugs in a primary care setting METHODS AND MATERIAL: Nine depressed patients (14%) who acknowledged suicidality on the PHQ-9 depression scale were followed up for and compared to a group of 54 (86%) depressed patients (controls) who did not have suicidal thoughts for four months. All were given treatment with antidepressants and followed with a disease management protocol where the PHQ-9 was used as a systematic outcome measure. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive measures and t-tests were utilized to show statistical significance. <br><br>RESULTS: There were no statistical differences in remission from depressive symptoms based on the PHQ-9 scale after antidepressant treatment, between patients with suicidal thoughts (56%) and those without (44%). <br><br>CONCLUSION: The presence of suicidality as a depressive symptom did not predict poorer clinical outcome when treating depression in the primary care setting in the patients studied.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0022-3859
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -