A social study of a group of depressed patients recovering in a private clinic

: Depression is a widespread illness in Sardinia and is treated mainly in private clinics which accept National Health patients. The aim of the present study was to evidence socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of depressed subjects who turn to these clinics. Furthermore we will examine the reason which led to the choice of a private clinic on the basis of services provided by the same, of those available in public hospitals and of patients' psychopathological history and socioeconomic characteristics. We examined 122 depressed patients who had been admitted to a private clinic in Cagliari over a period of six months. By means of a data collection sheet the following parameters were studied: sex, age, place of birth and residence, marital status, family nucleus, profession, level of education, head of the family's occupation, receipt of pension or subsidy, geriatric or other forms of assistance, diagnosis, age at onset of illness, characteristics of current episode, previous hospitalizations, treatment received (public or private), structures usually applied to patients, social welfare aid and reason for the same, psychiatric structures available locally, persons who had requested current and previous hospitalization, reason which had led to choice of clinic. Examination of data collected revealed that females are hospitalized (94.27%) more than males (5.73%); this finding is in agreement with data reported in the literature which evidence a higher incidence of depression among females. The majority of patients were in the over-50 age group (56.5%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)