Depression has been recognized as a major public health evidenced by its ranking of fourth position among the global burden of diseases. Many believe it will occupy second position by the year 2020. This is the first study in Saada and Yemen.

To determine the clinical and sociodemographic characteristic of depressive disorders in Saada country.

Patients who attended the medical OPD in general hospital during six month and consented to participate in this were screened with Hospital Anxiety and Depressive Scale (HAD). Identified depressed patients were studied and results were analysis.

714 patients attended, 20 refused to participate. 694 patients were screened by HAD Scale. 438(63%) were men. 21% were borderline and only 16% fulfilled the score for depression.72.3 suffer from loss of appetite, 50% from fatigue, 50% from loss of interest, 21% from suicidal ideas, 41% sleep disturbance and 12% of guilt feeling. 28% suffered from dizziness, 23% of gasterointestinal symptoms, and 16% from aches and pains. There was statistically significant difference between major depressive disorder and mixed anxiety and depressive disorder in that women were more. There was a trend towards statistical significance (P = 0.054) between delusions and qat chewing. There was no statistical significance with hallucination and qat chewing. Results were analysed and compared with other local and international studies.

Mild depressive illness is more common in women, there was no impact of qat on depression, loss of appetite was the most common symptom. These finding are consistent with other local studies.