Socio-demographic Characteristics of Hospitalized Patients with Depressive disorder

Depression is a common and debilitating disease that affects people from adolescence to old age and has a pronounced negative impact on the mental and physical health, as well as on the social and financial well-being of the individual and society. Depression is often undiagnosed, inadequately treated and associated with a negative outcome. Knowledge of the epidemiological characteristics of depression is of great importance for planning the appropriate treatment of depression, its timely detection and treatment in order to reduce the far-reaching consequences on an individual and social level. Epidemiological data on depression are missing in our country. Тhe study examines the hospital prevalence of depression in the three psychiatric hospitals in Macedonia, socio-demographic characteristics in terms of gender specifics of patients. Data are collected from the history of hospitalized depression in the three hospitals in the period 2014-2017 with a diagnosis of depression (F32.0 - F32.3) excluding those with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and senility. The results indicate a lack of diagnosis, a late start of treatment that predominantly comes down to long-term hospital treatment without pre- and post-hospital follow-up of patients with depression. Such findings underscore the need to address the stigma of depression and to develop a comprehensive system for early diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of the disorder, especially in terms of gender specificity. Keywords: Depression, Socio-demographic characteristics – gender specifics, Co morbidity, Treatment DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/89-07 Publication date:May 31st 2021