An analysis of the nature of depressive phenomena in primary health care utilising multivariate statistical techniques.

The nature of depressive phenomena in primary health care was explored with data obtained from three primary health care clinics situated in the periphery of the city of Calcutta in India. The Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) and the Screening for Depression Questionnaire (SDQ-9) were used as the first stage and the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Hamilton) as the second stage instruments respectively. Health workers with limited training administered the first stage instruments to consecutive adult clinic attenders. Principal components analysis followed by multiple linear regression analysis and discriminant function analysis were applied to the data. It was concluded that depressive phenomena in primary health care settings were largely undifferentiated in nature.