Depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disease that affects 15% of men and 25% of women in general population. It is reported that depression has higher tolls between the staff of the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and Operation Rooms (ORs) due to their occupational circumstances.

To evaluate the status of depression among health care's of intensive care units

The present study examines the prevalence of depression in the staff members of ICUs and ORs in the Ilam province of Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, 48 random staff members from hospitals’ ICUs and ORs in Ilam province (western Iran) were evaluated. The data was collected using the standard Beck questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software (ver. 17.0).

The mean age of samples was 31.86 with standard deviation of 7.95. More than half (52.1%) of participant's study were male. 50% of the them were married, 10.4% smoking, and 29.2% exercising regularly. The mean Depression score in the study was 33.6 with the standard deviation of 8.0. According to beck questionnaire, 66.7% of participants show signs of major depression. Prevalence of depression was higher in women, married, smoker, and those that having sedentary lifestyle. However, this difference was not significant (P>0.05).

The prevalence of depression among participants study is significantly higher than the general population. We expect that decreasing the agreed total number of work hours, providing educational resources to improve their lifestyle, as well as holding consulting therapy groups in the hospitals are recommended.