A report in The Lancet says that many GPs perform poorly when diagnosing symptoms of depression.

Researchers at the University of Leicester reviewed 41 trials involving more than 50,000 patients and found around half were either not diagnosed with clinical depression or were misdiagnosed by GPs, according to the BBC.

The team said that, in a ‘typical’ urban GP practice assessing around 100 patients for clinical depression, around 20 patients would have depression. A GP would diagnose around 10 of the 20 patients correctly as having depression – but would miss a further 10 patients who were affected by the condition.

Among the remaining 80 patients in the 100 being assessed, around 15 would be ‘over-diagnosed’, while the remaining 65 would be correctly assessed.

In rural GP surgeries, however, the researchers found that for every one patient correctly diagnosed with depression, there would be three others wrongly diagnosed as having the condition.

The team said that GPs were overall better at diagnosing severe cases of depression and suggested that patients who were reluctant to discuss their symptoms might be misdiagnosed – or patients with shorter appointment times might also be misdiagnosed.

The team said that if patients suspected of having depression were assessed over two appointments, GPs would have a 90 per cent accuracy rate in diagnosing the condition.

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