OBJECTIVES Depression is one of the most frequent mental health ailments. It has been estimated that by year 2020, it will be the worldwide second cause for the loss of healthy life years and the first cause in developed countries. In Mexico, the prevalence of major depression is estimated from 7% to 12%. However there is not information regarding healthcare resources use in Mexico for this pathology. This, study's objective is to document the health care resource use for depression treatment in Mexico. METHODS Twenty one mental health specialists from a public health institution were asked to answer a questionary. Additionally, modified Delphi method was applied with eight specialist to further analyze some of the topics. A database was created from the answers and a statistic analysis was performed. RESULTS Sixty percent of the ambulatory patients of the psiquatric area turn to the specialist due to depression and from these 40% due to major depression. Eighteen percent of the depression patients require hospitalization and, in average, they stay in the hospital 25 days. Approximately 39% of the patients with major depression become handicapped 3 periods of 14 days during the treatment. The average prescription time for the anti-depressive drugs is 11.3 months; however, the specialist reported that the prescription time could be from 4 to 27 months. CONCLUSIONS This study provides base line information regarding the use of health care resources use in the treatment of depressed patients in Mexico. Further evaluations of the disease burden in the country should be performed.