title: Subclinical depression in Spain: prevalence and health impact.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Subclinical depression is a prevalent condition with important implications for patients' functioning and wellbeing. However, there is a lack of studies operationalising its definition and studying its clinical significance and health impact in depth. This work analyses subclinical depression impact on a health satus score derived from eight heath domains, and its prevalence in Spanish population.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample was selected from World Health Survey database, choosing the answers for Spain of people with a dignosis of subclinical depression and no depressive disorders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Controlling the interaction of the different demographic variables, being female was the only significant predictor for the presence of subclinical depression. A worse health status is associated with subclinical depression, being female, a higher age, lower incomes, less years of formal education and being widowed. The decrease is significant in the eight health domains composing the score.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The necessity of a better conceptualization of the nature of clinical depression is highlighted, going in depth in different proposals defending a definition based on clinical signification rather than in the number of depressive symptoms, with the goal of avoiding the pathologization of human suffering and inherent distress to several vital situations.
authors: Departamento de Psiquiatría, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Hospital Universitario de la Princesa, Madrid, España. mar.rivas@uam.es
authors: Mar
authors: M
authors: Rivas
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Nuevo
authors: José Luis
authors: JL
authors: Ayuso-Mateos