Detection and Treatment of Depression in Patients Admitted to the General Hospital

Depression is a common disorder among patients with a somatic illness admitted to the general hospital. Patients with depression do worse in terms of their somatic symptoms or functioning that those without depression. They also stay in the hospital for longer.

That is the reason that we are interested to know whether patients with depression do better if their depression is recognised earlier and treated appropriately. We would like to find out which questionnaires are most suitable in clinical practice to help pick up patients with a depression. In addition, we would like to know whether a short-term psychological treatment of depression would be of any help. We hope to be able to show that this treatment would not only result in a reduction of depressive symptoms, but also in a better and quicker recovery of the somatic illness.

The treatment will consist of 6 to 9 weekly sessions of one hour, conducted by a cognitive behavioural assistant. Initially, the treatment will take place in the hospital. When patients are discharged, treatment sessions will continue at home. The treatment will focus on things like recognising and challenging unhelpful thoughts, planning of activities, and testing out of predictions by setting up behavioural experiments. Three monthly booster sessions will be offered to help patients to maintain their gains and prevent relapse. We will reassess the symptoms of the patients at three and six months after the end of treatment.