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Patient Teaching and Depression

If you are in the midst of depression, you may not realize that life can be different. Patients need information about depression as the first step in realizing that they may have it and to seek help. Teaching about depression is different from counseling or therapy. Different groups of caregivers can provide information to those coping with depression.

  1. General Practitioners

    • Many people who have depression receive no treatment at all. According to a study published in the British Medical Journal in 2002, people who do seek help tend to have severe problems, and many are managed by their general practitioners. This study found that only treatment which included "behavioural and educational self help materials" was successful. It was not useful for general practitioners to simply prescribe medication or attempt limited cognitive therapy.

    Nurses

    • Nurses in hospitals, offices, schools or community settings can teach patients and others about depression. They can screen people, provide information about medications, teach coping skills and recommend specialists and resources. In the hospital or acute care setting, a nurse can provide comprehensive care to improve the depressed patient's physical and psychological well-being. Other caregivers, such as home health agency employees and family caregivers, can be taught how to help sufferers manage symptoms and even reduce the number of episodes of depression.

    Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    • CBT combines education and therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapists teach patients to identify, debate and then correct their irrational ideas. The disputing process involves teaching patients to systematically ask and answer a set of questions designed to draw out whether particular ideas have any basis. In this way, a patient learns to identify activating experiences, self-defeating beliefs and consequences. A therapist then teaches the patient how to dispute the irrational beliefs and replace them with positive thoughts.

    Terminally Ill Patients

    • According to a focus study by the American Psychiatric Association, while there is information about psychological issues facing elderly or terminally ill patients with cancer, less is known about patients with other conditions, such as end-stage pulmonary, cardiac, renal and neurological disease. In any situation, it is important to encourage patients and families to talk openly about their concerns. The issues that arise in the death and dying process offer the opportunity for communication, connection, meaning, reconciliation and closure. This facilitates coping.

    Alzheimer's

    • The Alzheimer's Association notes that up to 40 percent of people with Alzheimer's disease suffer from significant depression. Fortunately, there are many effective non-drug and drug therapies available. Treatment of depression in Alzheimer's disease can improve a person's sense of well-being, quality of life and day-to-day function. What's more, depressive symptoms in Alzheimer's may come and go, in contrast with memory and thinking problems that steadily worsen over time.

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