Psychiatria pre prax 3/2022

Clinical Management of a patient with depressive episode in current psychiatric practice

One of the most prevalent mental disorders in population, depression, is the disorder with very complex clinical manifestation and significant impact on individualś functioning. It represents not only a health issue, but also a considerable social and economical issue. On the efforts to reverse this unfavorable situation contributes also a rigorous implementation of evidence based recommendations for diagnostics, treatment and general management of depressive disorder. Several studies document, that the management of care for patients with depression in common practice, consistent with approved guidelines, leads unambiguously to the better outcomes. Since May 1st 2020 we have also in Slovakia valid official guidelines for the diagnostics and treatment of depressive episode, which was delivered by Ministry of Health under the name Depressive episode – diagnostically-therapeutical standard. This article offers the results of the study performed approximately one year after approval of the standard for depressive disorder, in which participated representative sample of psychiatric working places from whole Slovakia, covering prevention, diagnostics and treatment of patients with mental disorders including depression.

Keywords: depressive episode, diagnostics, treatment, guidelines, adherence of professionals to the guidelines