Resultaat van psychiatrische interventies bij patiënten met klachten van depressieve aard, opgenomen op afdelingen voor Interne Ziekten

– According to the literature, depressive symptoms occur in 20-32 of general medical inpatients. They are probably often overlooked by their physicians. In this article, a study is described investigating the following questions: 1. How many patients admitted to general medical wards of a Dutch university hospital suffer from depressive symptoms and disorders? 2. How often is psychiatric consultation requested for these patients? 3. What is the benefit of psychiatric interventions for such patients? Mild to severe depressive symptoms were reported by 70 (32) of the 220 patients screened; for nine (13) of them psychiatrie consultation was sought. Psychiatric interventions were performed in a sample of 33 of these 70 patients. According to psychiatric criteria, 10 (30) of them suffered from a depressive disorder; for three (30) of these patients psychiatric consultation was requested. Compared with the control group, psychiatric interventions did not succeed in reducing the number of medical interventions nor in shortening the hospital stay, but it led to the prescription of fewer analgetic andor psychotropic medicaments and to a decrease of depressiveness at discharge.