The Prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder and Low Self-Esteem in Medical Inpatients

Abstract

The results from this study demonstrate that while there is an increase in the incidence of depression in medically ill patients, this is not as great as has been previously reported, and is not related to severity of illness. The results from this study, therefore, are in keeping with other recent findings which show that the prevalence rates for MDD in medical patients is between 5% to 10% rather than the previously accepted range of 20% to 40%.