In multiple studies abroad and locally, depression and anxiety disorders have been shown to be the commonest mental disorders and have relatively high prevalence in primary health care and general out-patient (GOP) clinic settings. In addition, several studies have shown that depression comorbid with anxiety disorders in GOP and general population settings. A disturbing finding for the ideal of meeting the mental health care needs of people is that, despite the noted high prevalence of these disorders, doctors in non-psychiatric settings fail to detect the vast majority of such subjects in GOP clinic settings. Furthermore, the vast majority of Nigerian studies on psychiatric morbidity in non-psychiatric clinical settings have been based on the use of either general psychic distress measures (e.g., Goldberg’s General Health Questionnaire) or general disease-specific measures that are rather lengthy and not focused on diagnostic criteria. In addition, a diligent review of electronic literature by the investigator revealed that majority of the Nigerian studies on psychiatric morbidity in GOP/PHC settings have emanated from Western Nigeria. This study was aimed at determining the pattern of depression and anxiety among patients attending the general outpatient clinic at Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Nigeria. Socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with depression and anxiety were identified. Four hundred and twenty (420) newly registered GOPD attendees at Yenagoa Federal Medical Centre, aged 18-64 years were selected by systematic random sampling method and a sampling interval of 5 was used. Subjects were interviewed in Pidgin English, a language that is spoken by all residents of the state. Relevant data were collected through various questionnaires i.e., a Socio-demographic, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and II also, an interviewer administered diagnostic instrument, the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI). A total of 183 (43.6%) of the subjects had major depression, 196 (46.9%) had anxiety disorder and 124 (67.8%) met criteria for anxiety disorder co-occurring in subjects with major depressive disorder. Among those who had depression, it was classified further into mild (26.2%), moderate (24.0%), moderately severe (9.5%) and severe (4.0%) using PHQ-9 as a severity measuring tool while anxiety disorder was classified further into mild (31.0%), moderate (13.8%) and severe (2.6%) using GAD-7. Of the 420 general outpatients assessed, 55.3%, 42.1%, 30.5%, 14.7%, 10.7% and 4.6% met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, respectively. The primary health care physicians were only able to diagnose disorders relating to mental health in 12 (6.6%) of the subjects with mental disorders. ‘Only anxiety disorder’ was found to be significantly commoner among subjects with higher educational status. Also, major depressive disorder was found to be significantly commoner among subjects with medical conditions. With high prevalence and low physician detection rates, there is an obvious need to enhance mental disorder diagnostic screening in the primary care setting.