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

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.