Evidence map›Paper›PMID 22137418›Full record

SynthesisThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2011

Case identification of depression in patients with chronic physical health problems: a diagnostic accuracy meta-analysis of 113 studies.

Nicholas Meader, Alex J Mitchell, Carolyn Chew-Graham, David Goldberg, Maria Rizzo, Victoria Bird, David Kessler, Jon Packham, Mark Haddad, Stephen Pilling

Registry-linked trialOpen access · bronzeAbstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
In one paragraph

Synthesis in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04039568 (Meditation Versus Education for Improving Depression in Chronic Pain, a Randomized Controlled Trial), which is not on this map. Cited by 55 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
55citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
5.3field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT04039568 nacompletednot on this mapstarted 2019, after this paper: background citation

Meditation Versus Education for Improving Depression in Chronic Pain, a Randomized Controlled Trial

TypeinterventionalSponsorMount Sinai Hospital, CanadaRan2019 to 2023Enrolled108ConditionsChronic Pain, DepressionArmsHealth Enhancement Program (HEP), Sahaj Samadhi Meditation (SSM)
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

55 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 122 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Sex as a moderator of the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and depressive symptoms in older adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026
    Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Trial
  8. Trial
  9. Trial
  10. Trial
  11. Trial
  12. Trial
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Nicholas MeaderNational Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, London. nmeader@hotmail.com
Alex J Mitchell
Carolyn Chew-Graham
David Goldberg
Maria Rizzo
Victoria Bird
David Kessler
Jon Packham
Mark Haddad
Stephen Pilling
Centre for Mental Health · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDepression is more likely in patients with chronic physical illness, and is associated with increased rates of disability and mortality. Effective treatment of depression may reduce morbidity and mortality. The use of two stem questions for case finding in diabetes and coronary heart disease is advocated in the Quality and Outcomes Framework, and has become normalised into primary care.

aimTo define the most effective tool for use in consultations to detect depression in people with chronic physical illness.

designMeta-analysis.

methodThe following data sources were searched: CENTRAL, CINAHL, Embase, HMIC, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Knowledge, from inception to July 2009. Three authors selected studies that examined identification tools and used an interview-based ICD (International Classification of Diseases) or DSM (Diagnostic and statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) diagnosis of depression as reference standard. At least two authors independently extracted study characteristics and outcome data and assessed methodological quality.

resultsA total of 113 studies met the eligibility criteria, providing data on 20,826 participants. It was found that two stem questions, PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire), the Zung, and GHQ-28 (General Health Questionnaire) were the optimal measures for case identification, but no method was sufficiently accurate to recommend as a definitive case-finding tool. Limitations were the moderate-to-high heterogeneity for most scales and the facts that few studies used ICD diagnoses as the reference standard, and that a variety of methods were used to determine DSM diagnoses.

conclusionAssessing both validity and ease of use, the two stem questions are the preferred method. However, clinicians should not rely on the two-questions approach alone, but should be confident to engage in a more detailed clinical assessment of patients who score positively.

Indexed as

Area Under CurveBayes TheoremChronic DiseaseDepressive DisorderGeneral PracticeHumansPsychiatric Status Rating ScalesSensitivity and SpecificitySurveys and Questionnaires

Identifiers

PMID22137418
PMCPMC3223779
OpenAlexW2164310118

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.