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Errors in Diagnosis of Depression Lead to Over and Under Diagnosis in Primary Care
Posted on 30/07/2009
University of Leicester
A meta-analysis of more than 50,000 patients has shown that general practitioners (GPs) have great difficulty separating those with and without depression, with substantial numbers of missed and misidentified.
GPs looking for depression make more misidentifications (false positives of depression) than the number of depressions they correctly spot following an initial consultation but accuracy could improved by re-assessment of people suspected of having depression.
These are the conclusions of an article published Online First and in an upcoming edition of The Lancet, written by Dr Alex Mitchell of University of Leicester together with Dr Amol Vaze, and Dr Sanajay Rao of Leicester Partnership Trust. The study pooled 41 trials from nine countries that used robust outcome standard of a semi-structured interview to assess depression. The researchers found that GPs were able to recognize about half of people who had clinical depression and correctly reassured 80% of healthy people.
Dr Alex Mitchell said