Depression--medical utilization and somatization

Abstract

We screened 147 primary care patients for depression using depression rating scales and a psychiatric interview. In the one year after screening, the patients with depression visited and phoned their physicians more frequently and had more medical evaluations than the nondepressed control group. The patients with depression were more likely to have nonspecific or vague complaints and psychophysiologic or depressive symptoms than the control group; their family physicians during this same period were more likely to diagnose a psychophysiologic problem.