Primary Care Depression Screening: Relationship to Chronic Pain and Gender

Depression is a subjective illness that often goes undiagnosed and untreated. As the first point of contact for patients, primary care clinics should screen patients regularly for depression. This study evaluated annual depression screening in a rural primary care clinic and relationships among depression, chronic pain, and gender. Using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), a convenience sample of 53 men and 49 women were screened for depression. Twenty-eight percent of patients scored positively for depression. Relationships among depression, chronic pain management, and gender surfaced in the results.