AIM To assess the association of six polymorphisms in serotonin-related genes with depressive or anxiety disorders in patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). METHODS The lifetime prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders was assessed in 95 IBS patients (85% women) using the Munich version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). IBS was diagnosed according to the...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of specific personality disorder comorbidity on the course of major depressive disorder in a nationally representative sample. METHOD Data were drawn from 1,996 participants in a national survey. Participants who met criteria for major depressive disorder at baseline in face-to-face interviews (in 2001-2002) were reinterviewed 3 y...

BACKGROUND General practitioners play a pivotal part in the recognition and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Identifying somatoform disorders is important for the choice of treatment. AIMS To quantify the prevalence of, and functional impairment associated with, somatoform disorders, and their comorbidity with anxiety/depressive disorders. METHOD Two-stage prevalence study: a set of ques...

BACKGROUND Better management of affective and somatoform disorders may reduce consultation rates in primary care. Somatoform disorders are highly prevalent in primary care and co-morbidity with affective disorders is substantial, but it is as yet unclear which portion of the health care use may be ascribed to each disorder. Our objective was to investigate the use of primary care for undifferen...

AIM The comorbidity of depression and dementia has been extensively studied. Four main hypotheses have been suggested to explain the relationship between depression and dementia: 1. depression may be a psychological reaction to perceived cognitive decline, 2. depression may be an early symptom of dementia, 3. depression may be an etiologic risk factor for the onset of dementia, and 4. dementia ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS To evaluate the risk of depressive disorders among patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan. METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of a newly diagnosed HCC cohort of 55,973 participants who were selected from the NHIRD. Patients were observed for a maximum of 6 years to determine the rates of ne...

To validate a Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) for screening postpartum depressive disorder in Songkhla Thai population, a screening test was conducted. A Thai version of the PDSS was developed using back translation and pre-tested on a prospective cohort of 400 postpartum women at 6-8 weeks from November 2003 to September 2004 in a university hospital, Southern Thailand. The diagno...

Current and lifetime rates of disorders outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev., DSM-III-R) were compared in 78 adult children caring for a parent with a progressive dementia and 78 control subjects. The frequencies of depressive and anxiety disorders did not differ between groups in the years prior to caregiving, and there were no differences betwee...

Introduction: Physical symptoms associated with depression and common psychiatric disorders sometimes lead to the misdiagnosis of depressive disorders. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency distribution of different chief complaints in patients with major depressive disorder referring to psychiatric clinics according to their demographic characteristics and source of referral. Me...