Prevalence and treatment of depression in a hospital department of internal medicine.

Background: Depressive disorders are overrepresented among patients admitted to nonpsychiatric units of general hospitals, but the majority of depressed patients are not identified in this setting. Effective and well-tolerated treatments and reliable diagnostic criteria, together with new assessment tools (self-administered or not), have been developed with encouraging results. Nevertheless, few studies have utilized standardized instruments and extensive clinical interviews by well-trained psychiatrists to assess depression.