Depression Survey

Over a four week period at the beginning of this year, we conducted a survey in our office with the help of one of our top students, Duncan Cheng, from NY Medical College. A Depression Questionnaire, composed by Duncan, (see below) was given to 70 patients over a period of 4 weeks while they were waiting to see their doctors. The intention of the survey was to evaluate if patients coming in with somatic complaints had underlying psychological concerns that manifested physically.

The results showed that 6 out of the 70 patients surveyed, or more than 8%, met the criteria for positive depressive symptoms.

From these results we can conclude that when patients come to the doctor’s office, some of them do have hidden psychosomatic agendas. We encourage incorporating questions about mental health in every patient encounter as it could be life-saving to address psychological issues in patients. It also shows that patients should feel more comfortable expressing their feelings openly with their doctors, in addition to their physical symptoms.

More research still needs to be done to further support these findings.

Manhattan Family Practice
Patient Mental Health Questionnaire

Initials:_____ Age:_____ Race/Ethnicity:____________________

Sex: ___M ___F

Were you born in New York? ___Yes ___No

If no, what year or age did you come to New York? __________

1. Do you feel happy most of the time? ___Yes ___No

2. Are you content with your life? ___Yes ___No

3. Do you enjoy things the way you used to? ___Yes ___No

4. Are you usually calm? ___Yes ___No

5. Do you have trouble sleeping? ___Yes ___No

6. Do you often feel helpless? ___Yes ___No

7. Do you often feel tired? ___Yes ___No

8. Is your appetite as good as it used to be? ___Yes ___No

9. Is your concentration as good as it used to be? ___Yes ___No

10. Do you ever have thoughts about killing yourself? ___Yes ___No