The long-term outcome of a depressive population in a Hungarian material

The authors made a follow-up study among 118 depressive patients. The follow-up period was 11 years (mean 7.8 years). They have used the operational criteria elaborated by Lee and Murray. The suicide rate was 2.54%, calculated for annual average per 100 000 inhabitants is 231.5. This figure is close to ten times higher (9.7) than the annual suicide rate of the general population of the district from the patients who were admitted (23.8). They found ‘very good outcome’ 25.4%, ‘moderate outcome not readmitted’ 42.4%, ‘moderate outcome readmitted’ 13.6% and ‘very poor outcome’ 13.6%. They summarised the available literature.