Depression is commonbut still ignored in general practice whereas it is a source of handicap, psychiatric and somatic morbidity.

To assess the punctual prevalence of major depression in primary healthcare centers in Tunisia.

A Transversal study during march 2007 was conducted in three primary healthcare centers in Hammamet city. All partients having sixteen years or older were evaluated by the Cluster A of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). Patients meeting criteria for major depressive disorder had subsequently been assessed by the MADRS depression scale. A score greater or equal to 20 was considered as the threshold score for the diagnosis of major depressive episode.

199 patients participated at the study (participation rate = 70%). The prevalence of major depression was 13% and half of the patients suffered from severe depression according to MADRS. Depression affected more patients with low socioeconomic level (p = 0.037), suffering from a chronic medical condition (p = 0.0013), unmarried, divorced or widowed (p = 0.022). There were no statistically significance according to age, gender, living environment, alcohol abuse, and tobacco or life events. The frequency of suicidal thoughts or behavior was 3% in the sample and 19% among depressed patients.

Need of further general practitioners training in systematic screening of depressive trouble is still requested.