PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Marian Block
AU  - Herbert C. Schulberg
AU  - John C. Coulehan
AU  - Maureen McClelland
AU  - William Gooding
TI  - Diagnosing Depression Among New Patients In Ambulatory Training Settings
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.1.2.91
DP  - 1988 Apr 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Practice
PG  - 91--97
VI  - 1
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/1/2/91.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/1/2/91.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med1988 Apr 01; 1
AB  - A research-validated instrument, based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III, is used as a “gold standard” to compare physician assessments of depression. Twenty-seven of 294 patients (9.2 percent) presenting to three primary care clinics for the first time met clinical criteria for a depressive disorder. Although the 27 depressed patients differed from the nondepressed patients on sociodemographic characteristics, prior service utilization patterns, and clinical variables, only 7 of the 27 were diagnosed as depressed by their primary care physicians. Factors associated with accurate assessment include comment in the patient’s chart of a prior psychiatric history. Many depressed patients reporting high levels of dysphoria on a screening instrument had no mood symptoms recorded on their charts.