Extent of depression among patients with gastrointestinal tract symptoms in outpatient clinic of al-Hussein Teaching Hospital in al-Nasiriyah at 2018

Abstract EN

Background : Depression is one of the most common mental health conditions in the general population as well as in clinical practice.

In clinical studies, there is a strong relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms and depression and the gastrointestinal symptoms remain for longer time and are more serious than inpatients without depression.

Objective: To estimate extent of depression in gastrointestinal tract symptoms in medical outpatient clinic attendees.

Methods: The study was a cross-sectional analytical study for 154 adult population in the Al-Hussein teaching hospital in Nasiriyah City, conducted at first March 2018and completed at end of September 2018.

Tools of method was questioner and for diagnosis of depression was used Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM- IV) criteria.

refusal rate was zero and for statistic analysis was used SPSS version 22.

Result: The study showed that 43.5 % of subjects with gastrointestinal symptoms suffer from depression.

depression found in 40.7% of females and 47.1% of males.

50.0% of depressed patients were in two age groups of 20 -44 years and ≥ 65 years.

Most of depressed patients were suffering constipation (51.3% ), change in appetite (51.3% ) and change in weight (50.7% ), where only change in appetite had significant association with depression, were p-value = 0.001.

More of depressed subjects had GI symptoms with one month duration and ≥ 7 numbers of GIT symptoms.

Recommendation : Raising awareness of general population about the depression and relation of that with GIT symptoms.