Primary Care Physicians Knowledge about Depression in Argentina

Objectives: To determine the level of knowledge about depressive disorders including their treatment, comorbidities and suicide potential among a number of general practitioners who agreed to fill out a questionnaire and provided information about their professional activities. Method: Exploratory cross-sectional study among a number of physicians who answered voluntarily and anonymously a questionnaire consisting of twelve questions. Data collected from 288 physicians were analyzed. Results: The majority of physicians (97.6%, n = 281) considered that depression was a disease, but 39.6% (n = 114) believed that it was caused by lack of will power or characterological weaknesses, which create a dissonance with the concept of disease. They also felt that they did not have enough knowledge about Depressive Disorders such as their origins, type of medications and length of treatment, comorbidities and suicide potential. Conclusions: The results point to the need for continuous medical education about Depressive Disorders among general practitioners.