History and Objectives: Considering the incidence of essential depression in patients with physical complaints and lack of precise information in this field, this study was conducted in Akhavan hospital in 1999.

Materials and Methods: The descriptive strategy of this study was carried out on 300 male and female patients. All of the hospitalized patients were randomly divided into control (n=150) and case (n=150) groups and their personal characteristics were recorded. Then, Beck test was applied and for those patients with marks higher than 11, a psychiatric interview was arranged according to DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. The statistical X² test was used for analysis.

Results: Case group consists of 35 male and 115 female patients and control groups comprised of 83 male and 67 female patients. The highest frequency was that from women with an approximate age of 40 years. The incidence of essential depression was 80% and 27.3% in case and control groups respectively. The most common complaints were those from head and neck (35.5%), musculoskeletal (33.7%), gastrointestinal (18.4%) and cardiovascular and respiratory (12.4%) systems. In addition, there was a relationship between essential depression and physical complaints (P<0.0001).

Conclusion and Recommendations: With regard to the high incidence of essential depression, it is recommended to conduct more studies in this field.