Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Major Depressive Disorder That Affect One-Year Rehospitalization Rate: A Retrospective Study in a University Hospital

Seo, Man Suk; Jeong, Jong Hyun; Seo, Ho Jun; Lim, Hyun Kook; Kim, Tae Won; Park, Min Hyun; Hong, Seung Chul; Han, Jin Hee

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with major depressive disorder who were rehospitalized within a year in a naturalistic setting at a university hospital.
METHODS
Inpatients with major depressive disorder patients were retrospectively investigated. Data on patients' demographic factors, clinical variables-age, sex, education year, socioeconomic state, marital state, illness duration, length of stay, severity of illness, presence of psychotic features, number of past depressive episodes and hospitalization, family history, comorbidity-were collected. Use of antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and hypnotics were investigated.
RESULTS
A total of 238 patients participated in the study. No significant differences were observed between one-year rehospitalized group and the non-rehospitalized group in demographic factors and clinical variables except for the number of previous psychiatric hospitalizations. The mean number of previous psychiatric hospitalization was significantly higher in the one-year rehospitalized group than the non-rehospitalized group (0.41+/-0.83 times vs. 0.23+/-0.83 times) (p=0.048). No significant differences in rehospitalized rates were observed among the disparate treatment types. One-year rehospitalization rate was significantly higher in patients who discontinued antidepressants than the patients who continued the antidepressants (15.9% vs. 0%) (p=0.002).
CONCLUSION
The present data suggest that the number of previous psychiatric hospitalizations is higher in patients who were rehospitalized within a year and the discontinuation of antidepressant might be an influencing factor. Further controlled studies are recommended to confirm our findings.