Abstract

AGREDA-CARRILLO, Eva Raquel et al. Knowledge, attitudes and practices about major depression in medical residents of a reference hospital in Lima, Peru. Rev Neuropsiquiatr [online]. 2017, vol.80, n.2, pp.94-104. ISSN 0034-8597.  http://dx.doi.org/10.20453/rnp.v80i2.3090.

Depression is the most common mental disorder worldwide and in our country. However, only 50 to 70% of patients with depression are diagnosed in primary care settings. Objectives: To identify levels of knowledge, attitudes and practices about major depression in medical residents of the Cayetano Heredia National Hospital in Lima, Peru during a 30-day period. Material and methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study. Medical residents of all training years and of different specialties were surveyed. Results: From a total of 113 medical residents (56.64% males), 5.31% had received teaching about psychiatry and mental health during the residency training, 15.93% demonstrated insufficient knowledge, 73.45% moderate knowledge, and only 10.62% showed sufficient knowledge about depression. There was no statistically significant association between total knowledge score and confidence in their ability to diagnose depression. Although 88.5% consider that depression is a disease, only 55.75% opined that all physicians should be able to detect and start the treatment of a case of depression. Conclusions: The medical residents’ knowledge of major depression is far from optimal. A small but significant percentage of the participants showed persistently negative attitudes toward the assessment of depression as a mental illness, and less than half appeared to be well informed about relevant treatment aspects. The need to correct these deficiencies is indeed perentory.

Keywords : Knowledge; attitudes; practice; depression; residency physicians.

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