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Patients' beliefs about the cause of their depression
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Psychiatry.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9976-5702
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Psychiatry.
Umeå University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, Psychiatry.
2010 (English)In: Journal of Affective Disorders, ISSN 0165-0327, E-ISSN 1573-2517, Vol. 124, no 1-2, p. 54-59Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

BACKGROUND: Patients' beliefs about the cause of their depression can affect their help-seeking behavior, treatment preferences, coping strategies and treatment compliance. There are few studies exploring depressed patients' beliefs about the causes and to our knowledge none in a Swedish population. However, previous studies show that the patients more often mention environmental and psychological causes than biological. The aim of this study was to further explore depressed patients' answers to an open-ended question about the etiology of their depression. METHODS: Primary care patients, participating in a study evaluating patient education, were asked an open-ended question about their beliefs about what had caused their depression. Answers were obtained from 303 patients. RESULTS: The analysis of the patients' beliefs emerged into 16 different categories of explanations for depression that could be organized into three larger themes: current life stressors, past life events and constitutional factors. Work-related stress was the most commonly mentioned cause, followed by personality and current family situation. Only 3.6% stated biological reasons. LIMITATIONS: We could only count the frequency of mentioned causes, but no ranking of the importance of these causes. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care patients often gave multi-causal explanations to their depression. Biological explanations were rare. Their beliefs were predominantly current life stressors such as work or family situation and also their own personality. Patients' beliefs about their illness are important in the patient-doctor encounter, when developing new treatment strategies aiming at improved adherence to both psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments and also in patient education programs.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2010. Vol. 124, no 1-2, p. 54-59
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-30515DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2009.10.032ISI: 000278787400007PubMedID: 19923007Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-77952292097OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-30515DiVA, id: diva2:284407
Available from: 2010-01-07 Created: 2010-01-07 Last updated: 2024-04-05Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Depression in primary care: detection, treatment, and patients’ own perspectives
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Depression in primary care: detection, treatment, and patients’ own perspectives
2010 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Background Depression is a very common disorder that causes great suffering for the patient. Recognizing depressed patients in primary care (PC) settings is a challenge and only about half are identified as depressed by their general practitioner (GP). Among patients receiving antidepressants (AD) about 70 % are improved, but only about 35 % reach remission. Hence, there is a need to identify depressed patients and to develop optimal treatment strategies in PC. Self-rating scales can be helpful in assisting the recognition. Patients’ beliefs about the cause of depression and their attitudes towards treatment options have been found to influence their help-seeking behavior, coping strategies, treatment preferences and adherence. To increase depressed patients’ knowledge about their disorder and to help them reach and stay in remission, the “Contactus program” was launched in Sweden, containing patient education and group counseling, as supplement to the usual care in PC.

Aims To explore patients’ beliefs about causes and improvement factors for depression, and evaluate if the Contactus program could help to improve treatment outcome. Also, to investigate the psychometrics of two commonly used self-rating scales for depression, HADS and PHQ-9.

Methods Treatment outcome among patients participating in the Contactus program (N=205) was compared to a control group (N=114) treated as usual. The outcome was measured by HADS, GAF-self and by questionnaires. Both groups also answered an open-ended question about the cause of their depression at baseline and another question about improvement factors at follow-up after six weeks. To compare HADS and PHQ-9, patients (N=737) visiting their physician because of depression filled in both scales. The scales cut-offs were compared with Cohen’s Kappa, internal consistency was calculated and factor analysis was performed. 

Results Depressed patients participating in the Contactus program had a response rate of 55 % compared to 29 % in the control group (p=0.006). Also, remission was reached among 42 % in the Contactus group and 21 % among the controls (p=0.02). The patient’s subjective evaluation of the outcome after six weeks showed that 72% of the Contactus patients considered themselves improved vs. 47% among controls (p=0.01). The most common described reason for depression was current stress, most often work related, and own personality traits. Very few mentioned biological factors. For improvement, the most commonly mentioned aspects were participation in the Contactus program and AD. When comparing HADS to PHQ-9 their agreement at recommended cut-offs, HADS-D≥11 and PHQ-9≥10, was low (k=0.35). The highest Kappa value (0.56) and also equal prevalence of depression were found at HADS-D≥8 and PHQ≥12. Both scales had a high internal consistency (α=0.9).

Conclusions The results of this thesis indicate that patient education and group counseling are valuable supplements to usual treatment of depression in PC. It is also clear that patients and professionals often have different opinions about the causes of depression, at least concerning biological factors. The patients were generally positive to professional help. The patients’ own beliefs about their illness must be considered when developing new types of interventions and when trying to reach an understanding in the patient-doctor encounter. Finally, there are many self-rating scales for depression. Here two scales were compared and both showed good psychometric properties in terms of internal consistency and factor structure. However their optimal cut-offs were questioned. In conclusion, self-rating scales are useful in identifying depressed patients in PC and might also be apt for measuring treatment outcome. Offering the patient education about their disorder and possibility to share experiences seems to increase response and remission rates, substantially. More studies are needed to explore the effects of educational programs, group interventions, and how patients’ own believes interact with the choice of treatment, adherence and outcome.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå Universitet, 2010. p. 63
Series
Umeå University medical dissertations, ISSN 0346-6612 ; 1308
Keywords
Depression, primary care, patient education, group counselling, patients’ beliefs, treatment, causes, self-rating scales, HADS, PHQ-9
National Category
Psychiatry
Research subject
Psychiatry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-30516 (URN)978-91-7264-891-3 (ISBN)
Public defence
2010-01-29, Sal B, Tandläkarhuset, 9 tr, Norrlands Universitetssjukhus, Umeå, 09:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2010-01-09 Created: 2010-01-07 Last updated: 2024-04-05Bibliographically approved

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Hansson, MajaChotai, JayantiBodlund, Owe

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