Year: 2002 Source: Psychological Medicine, v.32, no.4, (May 2002), p.595-607 SIEC No: 20030461

This is the first study that prospectively investigates the risk factors of depressive episodes in an international primary care sample. A stratified primary care sample of initially non-depressed subjects from 15 centres from all over the world was examined for the presence or absence of a depressive episode at the 12 month follow-up assessment. 4.4% of primary care patients met criteria for a depressive episode. Repeated suicidal thoughts were found to be related to the development of new depressive episodes. (45 refs)