Abstract
Background and Objectives: Depression is believed to complicate the care of general hospital patients on medical and surgical wards. This study was carried out to demonstrate the prevalence of depressive disorder in patients undergoing elective surgical operations and to investigate its effects on the length of hospital stay.
Materials and Methods: One hundred inpatients of surgical wards of Emam and Sina general hospital of Tabriz, were selected through convenient sampling. The patients were evaluated by Beck depressive inventory. According to Beck scores, the patients were assigned to two groups, depressed and non depressed .The mean length of hospital stay were determined in each group. The data were analyzed through t-test.
Results: Out of 100 patients, 91 (50 males and 41 females) completed the study. According to Beck scores, 28 patients (30.76%) had no depression and 63 patients (69.24%) were diagnosed as depressed. In order to reduced the false positive depression, we considered the cut off point 18 and 31 patients (34.07%) were evaluated as depressed and 60 (65.93%) as non-depressed. The depressed groups had a mean length of stay about 9.02 days vs. 6.92 days in non-depressed groups respectively. A significant difference was noted between two groups (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The prevalence of depression on surgical patients was higher than general population and depression affects on length of hospital stay, so specific plans need to be executed to prevent and treat depression in surgical wards