Ashish Vilas Saboo, Anurag Virendra Khapri
BACKGROUND A significant percentage of patients admitted in the hospital for some other ailments for duration longer than their expectations may suffer from depression during their hospitalization. Aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of depression in patients hospitalized for long duration. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients admitted in indoor wards of different departments of the hospital fulfilling selection criterion were recruited for the purpose of the study. The recruited persons who were likely to have to stay for 3 weeks or more were interviewed in detail at time of admission and after 3 weeks of hospitalization by using the special proforma prepared for the study and were administered Brief Assessment Scale (BAS) for Depression & Hamilton’s Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). The data collected from the patients was entered in Excel sheet & then tabulated and analysed. RESULTS Initially about 100 patients were recruited for the study; out of which 70 patients from different wards were admitted for 21 days or more. About 39 patients i.e. 55.71% were found to be suffering from depression at the end of 3 weeks of hospital stay as compared to just 12% at the time of admission. Also, the severity of depression found to be more in patients after 3 weeks of hospital stay. CONCLUSION This study shows us that depression can be a negative outcome of patients hospitalized for long duration. One needs to keep that in mind while treating patients on indoor basis.
