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Natural history of symptoms of depression and anxiety during inpatient treatment on general medicine wards

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Abstract

Objective:To establish the frequency of criteria-based depression and anxiety in newly admitted medical inpatients and to determine the natural history of depressive and anxiety symptoms during hospitalization.

Design:Prospective structured assessment of criteria-based depression and anxiety diagnoses within 24 hours of hospitalization with routine follow-up depression and anxiety questionnaires until discharge.

Setting:A tertiary care university hospital and an affiliated Veterans Administration hospital.

Patients:One hundred twenty-eight adult patients admitted to internal medicine inpatient units between May 1990 and August 1990.

Main results:On admission, 43 of the 128 patients inducted met the DSM-III criteria for major depression, while an additional six met the criteria for adjustment disorder with depressed mood. Only six patients met the criteria for panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or adjustment disorder with anxious mood at the time of admission to the study. Patients with high symptom scores on the anxiety and depression scales showed significant decreases in these scores without specific psychiatric intervention. Those who remained in the hospital 20 days or longer showed initial improvement and subsequently returned to baseline symptom levels of depression and anxiety. In approximately 9% of patients, symptoms of depression persisted or worsened.

Conclusions:Major depression occurs more commonly than anxiety disorder in newly admitted medical inpatients but both resolve spontaneously in the majority during the course of hospitalization without specific psychiatric intervention unless the hospitalization is prolonged. One in ten will continue to show symptoms of depression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, C429-1 GH, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, 52242, Iowa City, IA

    Roger G. Kathol MD

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Clinical Epidemiology, and Health Services Research, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa

    Roger G. Kathol MD & Richard P. Wenzel MD, MSc

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  1. Roger G. Kathol MD
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  2. Richard P. Wenzel MD, MSc
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Supported by a Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development Field Program Grant.

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Kathol, R.G., Wenzel, R.P. Natural history of symptoms of depression and anxiety during inpatient treatment on general medicine wards. J Gen Intern Med 7, 287–293 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02598085

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