Lived Experiences of Patient with Major Depressive Disorder who Achieved Remission

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the experience of a patient with major depressive disorder who achieved remission.

Design: Qualitative research method based on Husserl’s phenomenology concept

Methods: The participants were patients who achieved remission from major depressive disorder in Bangkok. All the participants received the treatments at the outpatient department, Somdet Chaopraya Institute of Psychiatry; purposive sampling technique was used to focus on particular characteristics of the participants, who met the inclusion criteria. The Hamilton depression rating scale (HRSD-17) Thai version we're used for preliminary screening only. The Chronbach’s Alpha coefficient reliability was 0.738. Data were collected by using interview guidelines with in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed by using Colaizzi’s method and audio recording, until saturated data with the 10 informants.

Finding: The experience of patients with major depressive disorder who achieved remission were categorized into 4 main aspects: 1) Awareness is changing 2) Seeking knowledge for self-care 3) Self-care management 4) Encouragement

Conclusion: Understanding the mental health literacy experience of patients who achieved remission from major depressive disorder, a health care team provider took as basic information guidelines to improve and approach care appropriately. Then the patients can move to the next step, recovery.