Brief report Family history of suicide: A clinical marker for major depression in primary care practice? Peter Torzsa a , Zoltan Rihmer b, ⁎, Xenia Gonda b,c , Nora Szokontor d , Bea Sebestyen e , Gabor Faludi b , Laszlo Kalabay a a Department of Family Medicine, Kutvolgyi Clinical Center, Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Kutvolgyi ut 4,1125 Budapest, Hungary b Department of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health, Kutvolgyi Clinical Center, Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Kutvolgyi ut 4,1125 Budapest, Hungary c Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy, Semmelweis University, Faculty of Medicine, Nagyvarad ter 4, 1089 Budapest, Hungary d Department of Pharmacy Administration, Semmelweis University, Hogyes Endre utca 7-9, 1092 Budapest, Hungary e National Centre for Healthcare Audit and Inspection, Vaci ut 174,1138 Budapest, Hungary article info abstract Article history: Received 1 December 2008 Received in revised form 9 January 2009 Accepted 9 January 2009 Available online 10 February 2009 Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the family history of suicide among primary care patients with or without current major depressive episode (MDE). Methods: This study was performed in 2 GP practices in Budapest on 255 consecutively investigated primary care attendees. The diagnosis of current MDE (symptomatic MDE or MDE in partial remission) was made by the Hungarian version of the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD). Family history of suicide was rated as positive where the patients reported at least one first or second degree relative with completed suicide. Results: Out of the 255 consecutively investigated patients 45 (17.6%) have had current MDE and 24 (9.4%) have had positive family history of suicide. The family history of suicide was significantly more common among patients with current MDE than among those without it (26.6% vs 5.7%, p = 0.0001). Fifty percent of patients with, and 14.3% of patients without family history of suicide have had current MDE (p = 0.0001). Limitation: Small sample size, and lacking data on fully remitted major depressives as well as on comorbid psychiatric and medical disorders. Conclusion: History of completed suicide among first or second degree relatives could be a good and simple clinical marker for current and lifetime MDE in primary care patients. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Major depression Completed suicide Family history Primary care practice 1. Introduction Studies from different parts of the world consistently have shown that the current prevalence of major depression in the primary care practice is around 8–10% (range 4–18%) (Al-Windi, 2005; Ansseau et al., 2004; Christensen et al., 2001; Lecrubier, 2001; Spitzer et al., 1994; Szadoczky et al., 1997, 2004; Voros et al., 2006). However, despite the increasing awareness of depression recently, GPs still have some difficulties recognizing depression (Berardi et al., 2005; Lecrubier, 2001; Szadoczky et al., 2004). In order to improve detection of depression in primary care practice without use of prolonged structured interviews simple tools like the Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD) (Spitzer et al., 1994) have been developed. As depression and suicidal behaviour are strongly related (Angst et al., 1999; Renaud et al., 2008; Rihmer, 2007; Sokero et al., 2005) and both of them aggregate within families (Kim et al., 2005; Mann et al., 2005; Melhem et al., 2007; Roy et al., 1999) a simple indicator, like past suicide attempt of the patient or completed suicide among blood-relatives would also serve as a simple tool for screening depression in primary care practice, where the main reasons of medical contact are Journal of Affective Disorders 117 (2009) 202–204 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +36 1 355 8498. E-mail address: rihmerz@kut.sote.hu (Z. Rihmer). 0165-0327/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.01.008 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Affective Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jad