We aim to detect the prevalence and risk factors of depression in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients.
A case-control study was conducted on 159 adult patients admitted to the ICU of a governmental hospital, Alexandria, Egypt. We classified the patients using the Arabic version of Hamilton scale as either depressed or not. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were done to detect the relation between depression and different predictors after controlling the confounding effect of all other factors.
The prevalence of depression in the ICU patients was 46.5%. The strongest risk factor for depression was female gender (Odds ratio (OR) 46.4, 95% CI: 11.3 to 189.9). One-year increase in age increases the odds of depression by 5% (OR 1.05, 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.09). The odds of depression increased 22 times more in mechanically ventilated patients (OR 22.95% CI: 4.78 to 101.85). The OR of depression was 4.39 (95% CI: 1.29 to 14.97) among patients with cardiac arrest history.
The high prevalence of depression among ICU patients requires attention especially among old female patients, those on mechanical ventilation and those with previous cardiac arrest history.