Chronic and Recurrent Depression in Primary Care: Socio-Demographic Features, Morbidity, and Costs

Table 5

Average costs over three months, by service category and diagnostic group.

Service category^a	Chronic major depression (𝑛=163)	Recurrent depression (𝑛=296)	Dysthymia (𝑛=89)	Total (𝑛=548)
	Mean costs (SD)	Mean costs (SD)	Mean costs (SD)	Mean costs (SD)
Primary care	£96 (80)	£88 (77)	£92 (67)	91 (77)
Mental health	£147² (401)	£107¹ (317)	£40^1,2 (136)	105 (325)
Hospital	£176 (463)	£154 (520)	£107 (230)	153 (467)
Alternative therapy	£9^2,3 (48)	£33^1,3 (235)	£0^1,2 (4)	21 (175)
Other health and community services	£67 (232)	£54 (213)	£57 (218)	58 (219)
Anti-depressants	£12 (20)	£12 (21)	£11 (19)	12 (20)
Other medications	£17³ (13)	£12^1,3 (14)	£15^1 (15)	14 (15)
Total costs	£523² (784)	£460^1 (787)	£322^1,2 (386)	457 (738)

^aSee Table 4 for services included in each category.
¹Significant difference between dysthymia and recurrent depression groups.
²Significant difference between dysthymia and chronic major depression groups.
³Significant difference between recurrent depression and chronic major depression groups.