Adult outpatients with depression: worse quality of life than in other chronic medical diseases in Argentina

Current research into the impact of major depressive illness on society goes beyond estimating its prevalence, complications or comorbidity patterns, to include research that seeks to establish how this disorder affects individuals' daily functioning and well-being. However, it is unclear whether depression affects such broadly defined quality of life (QOL) outcomes to a similar or an even greater extent than chronic physical illness. The present study assessed QOL in a sample of 48 ambulatory depressed patients who sought psychiatric assistance at a centre in La Plata, Argentina, during a 15-month period. All of them met DSM-IV criteria for current major depression, as diagnosed by clinicians. For the purposes of comparison, we also evaluated the QOL of additional samples of persons who were healthy or who had chronic physical illness. QOL was assessed with the WHOQOL-100, a generic and transcultural instrument developed simultaneously in 15 centres, by the World Health Organization (WHO). Results indicated that QOL was significantly poorer in depressed persons than in either healthy persons or individuals with other frequent chronic pathologies in Argentina. The impact of depression was also found to be related to the seriousness of the episode. We suggest that it is important to include QOL assessments of patients with depressive disorders when evaluating the course and progress of their treatment. Such assessments can be used in health care decision making and resource allocation.