TY - JOUR T1 - Developing primary care treatment of depression JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 501 LP - 502 VL - 57 IS - 539 AU - Mark Aguis AU - CL Murphy AU - Alpha Win AU - Rashid Zaman AU - Giuseppe Tavormina Y1 - 2007/06/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/57/539/501.3.abstract N2 - Tylee and Walters1 make a good case for the development of a chronic disease model for the management of depression in primary care. Some of the figures that they quote deserve further comment. It is of concern that between 30 and 50% of patients treated for depression with anti-depressants in primary care do not show a response, while only 30% achieve remission. It is also of concern that only 10% of patients on antidepressants complete an adequate course. Finally, it is of concern that 76% of patients with residual symptoms relapse and that 12 months after diagnosis, 45% of patients with severe symptoms remain depressed, and 40% of patients have a relapsing remitting course over a decade. These facts clearly lead up to the statement that 40% of patients with depression are eligible for ‘step 4’ secondary care interventions.It is interesting to see how these statements appear to be born out in practice. We work in a community mental health team with a catchment population of 60 000. Out of these, in 10 months 456 patients were seen in the clinic. Of these, 63 had a diagnosis of recurrent depressive disorder, 12 had psychotic depression, 28 had anxiety and depression, 73 were seen for depressive episodes, … ER -