Identifying depression in primary care: a comparison of different methods in a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Eighteen primary care facilities participated in our prospective cohort study. The study protocol was approved by our local ethics committee. On one given day, all patients who presented in one of the practices were asked to complete the three screening questionnaires before seeing a doctor. The doctors who treated the patients remained blind to the questionnaire results until they had completed a brief “physician's encounter form” to indicate their clinical assessment of their patient's current diagnoses.