Abstract
Depressive disorders are in the Czech Republic, as in the whole world the most important disease in terms of health and social load society. According to the World Health Organization, depression will be in 2020, after cardiovascular disease the second leading cause of health problems.
It turned out that a significant proportion of patients of general practitioners suffer from affective or anxiety disorders, while only about a quarter of mental disorders is therapeutically influenced. Depression is yet associated with an increased incidence of the most serious diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.