TY - JOUR
PY - 2019//
TI - Somatic symptoms in treatment-naïve Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients with major depression
JO - Depression and anxiety
A1 - Dunlop, Boadie W.
A1 - Still, Sarah
A1 - LoParo, Devon
A1 - Aponte-Rivera, Vivianne
A1 - Johnson, Benjamin N.
A1 - Schneider, Rebecca L.
A1 - Nemeroff, Charles B.
A1 - Mayberg, Helen S.
A1 - Craighead, W. Edward
SP - ePub
EP - ePub
VL - ePub
IS - ePub
N2 - BACKGROUND: Somatic complaints are a major driver of health care costs among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Some epidemiologic and clinical data suggest that Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black patients with MDD endorse higher levels of somatic symptoms than non-Hispanic White patients.
METHODS: Somatic symptoms in 102 Hispanic, 61 non-Hispanic Black, and 156 non-Hispanic White patients with treatment-naïve MDD were evaluated using the somatic symptom subscale of the Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A). The other seven items of the HAM-A comprise the psychic anxiety subscale, which was also evaluated across ethnicities.
RESULTS: Hispanic patients reported significantly greater levels of somatic symptoms than non-Hispanic patients, but levels of psychic anxiety symptoms did not differ by ethnicity. Levels of somatic symptoms did not significantly differ between Black and White non-Hispanic patients. Within the Hispanic sample, somatic symptom levels were higher only among those who were evaluated in Spanish; Hispanics who spoke English showed no significant differences versus non-Hispanics.
CONCLUSIONS: In this medically healthy sample of patients with MDD, monolingual Spanish-speaking Hispanic patients endorsed high levels of somatic symptoms. Clinicians should be mindful that the depressive experience may manifest somatically and be judicious in determining when additional medical work-up is warranted for somatic complaints.
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Language: en
LA - en
SN - 1091-4269
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/da.22984
ID - ref1
ER -