PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Roberto Lewis-Fernández
AU  - Amar K. Das
AU  - César Alfonso
AU  - Myrna M. Weissman
AU  - Mark Olfson
TI  - Depression in US Hispanics: Diagnostic and Management Considerations in Family Practice
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.18.4.282
DP  - 2005 Jul 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice
PG  - 282--296
VI  - 18
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/18/4/282.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/18/4/282.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2005 Jul 01; 18
AB  - US Hispanics, currently the largest minority group in the country, face disparities in the recognition and treatment of major depression. This article provides an evidence-based review of the prevalence, presentation, and management of major depression in primary care in this heterogeneous ethnic group. Under-recognition of depression in adult Hispanic Americans may be related to language differences, health literacy barriers, somatic presentations, and use of cultural idioms of distress. Hispanic patients are often agreeable to treatment but as a group may tend to prefer psychotherapy or combined counseling and medication to pharmacotherapy alone. Recent studies have found both psychological and pharmacologic treatment options are efficacious in this minority group. Treatment adherence should be actively monitored to help ensure its effectiveness. To help reduce the number of depressed Hispanic patients who pass through primary care undetected or inadequately treated, family physicians should make a concerted effort to increase their awareness of the presentation of major depression in this population and actively promote adherence to effective treatments.