Depression was one of the main causes of hospitalization in the Psychiatry services of Portuguese public hospitals, indicates a study by researchers from CINTESIS@RISE, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) and the Tâmega and Sousa Hospital Center (CHTS).
The research group counted 28,569 hospitalizations in adults over an eight-year period.
The objective of the study, published in the scientific journal Psychiatric Quarterly, was to analyze the admissions for depression in public hospitals, as well as to characterize these patients from a socio-demographic and clinical point of view, based on administrative data from all public hospitals in mainland Portugal.
Depression was responsible for one in every five hospitalizations for mental illness at the national level. That is, in the studied period (2008 to 2015), more than 19% of hospitalizations (episodes lasting more than 24 hours) in public hospitals were attributed to depressive disorder, classified according to the International Classification of Diseases ICD-9-CM.
Depression is characterized by an alteration in the mood with predominant feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and lack of motivation. It can occur with feelings of fatigue and irritability, and changes in sleep and appetite. Faced with these symptoms, seeking help from health professionals allows for optimal and appropriate treatment for the patient.
The duration of hospitalizations was around 13 days, being higher in cases of major depression. Each episode had an estimated value of about 2,600 euros, spending a total of 74.4 million euros in just eight years.
March was the month in which there were more cases of hospitalization for depression in our country (9%) and December, on the contrary, was the month in which there were fewer hospitalizations due to this cause (7%).
Most of the patients hospitalized for depression were women, regardless of the type of depression, totaling about 70% of all episodes; and patients were on average 51 years old.
The researchers also indicate that 37% of the inpatients with depression had other psychiatric conditions, including, for example, anxiety disorders, personality disorders and substance abuse (mainly alcohol).
“Hospitalizations emerge as an important indicator of depression treatment and are often reserved for patients with severe forms of the disease, namely in the face of a suicidal crisis, when the socio-familial context is not considered a container, or as a last line of treatment,” explains Manuel Gonçalves Pinho, MD and researcher at CINTESIS/FMUP.
According to the authors, this reality “reinforces the need for greater investment in mental health care provided to patients in the community, as well as in the provision of psychotherapeutic support, social/functional reintegration, and implementation of new psychopharmacological treatments.
Thus, they conclude, “clinicians and policy makers will be able to use these results to better understand this population and better define strategies to prevent disease and promote mental health.”
In addition to Manuel Gonçalves Pinho (FMUP/CINTESIS and CHTS), João Pedro Ribeiro (CHTS), Lia Fernandes (FMUP/CINTESIS and CHUSJ) and Alberto Freitas (FMUP/CINTESIS) are also authors of this study.