Hospitalizations For Patients With Depression On The Increase

Main Category: Depression
Also Included In: Mental Health
Article Date: 15 Nov 2007 - 1:00 PDT

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The rate for patients who are hospitalized for other conditions but who also suffer from depression nearly tripled from 93 to 247 admissions per 10,000 between 1995 and 2005, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

During the same period, the hospitalization rate for patients who were admitted solely for treatment of depression remained relatively stable - falling slightly from 45 to 42 admissions per 10,000 people.

AHRQ also found that:

- Over the decade, the number of hospital stays in which depression was the secondary diagnosis increased from 930,000 to nearly 2.5 million.

- Patients who had a secondary diagnosis of depression were 3.5 times more likely to be admitted for a primary diagnosis of alcohol and substance abuse than patients who did not have depression.

- One in 10 patients who had depression were admitted primarily for heart or circulatory conditions, such as congestive heart failure, hardening of the arteries, stroke, or non-specific chest pain.

- The 2.9 million hospital stays in 2005 in which depression was a co-existing or primary illness cost nearly $22 billion.

This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on data in Hospital Stays Related to Depression. The report uses statistics from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital inpatient stays that is nationally representative of inpatient stays in all short-term, non-Federal hospitals. The data are drawn from hospitals that comprise 90 percent of all discharges in the United States and include all patients, regardless of insurance type, as well as the uninsured. The authors used AHRQ's Inpatient Quality Indicators to determine the in-hospital, risk-adjusted death rates.

http://www.ahrq.gov