Cross-cultural Comparative Study of Depressive Signs and Symptoms between Egyptian and Saudi Out-Patient Samples with Depression above the Age of 40 years as Measured by WHO/SADD

Two outpatient clinic samples of patients were selected randomly during the period from January 1994 till the end of March 1994. Both of them were chosen from private hospital one is Cairo, Egypt. The second in A1 Khobar, Eastern province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The first sample consisted of 45 Egyptian patients and the second sample consisted of 83 Saudi patient. Their inclusion criteria were patients have the diagnosis of mood disorder, depressive episode, either first episode or recurrent, according to the diagnostic criteria for research of ICD10 (International classification of mental and behavioral disorders, WHO 1993)., the patients' score on Hamilton depressive scale should be above 18., the patients' ages are above 40 years. Psychiatric interview and application of Hamilton rating scale for depression and World Health Organization, Schedule for a standardized assessment of depressive disorders (WHO, SADD) 5th revision. The present study showed that all patients in the two samples had symptoms of depressed mood, sadness, joblessness and inability to enjoy. Followed by loss of interest, with variable frequencies of other signs and symptoms. This finding of similarities for the core depressive symptoms with differences in the predominant mode of expression between the two cultures (Egyptian and Saudi) agrees with the results which means that there are themselves in all patients cross-culturally, culture, hence vary in frequency and severity