Short-term educational intervention improves family physicians' knowledge of depression.
BACKGROUND
Depression is frequently unrecognized and undertreated. Therefore, there is a need to increase the knowledge and skills of primary care physicians regarding management of depression. The aim of this study was to determine if a brief educational intervention can affect family physicians' knowledge of the diagnosis and treatment of depression.


METHODS
Sixty-eight community-based, nonacademic family physicians completed the program, which was delivered using a mixed lecture-seminar format. Knowledge about depression was assessed pre- and post-program. Paired-sample t test and chi-square test were used to compare test scores.


RESULTS
Although study physicians demonstrated high baseline knowledge of depression, 75% of them had better scores following the program. The increase in knowledge was statistically significant (p < .0001).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrates that a simple and brief educational program can enhance family physicians' knowledge of depression; however, an increase in knowledge alone may not necessarily translate into practice behavior change.
Kutcher
Stanley
S
Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3K 9Z9.
Lauria-Horner
Bianca
B
MacLaren
Connie
C
Bujas-Bobanovic
Maja
M
Karlovic
Zlatko
Z
D002170:Canada; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000193:education*