Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India

Background: Clinical depression is a major leading cause of morbidity and mortality but it is oftentimes overlooked and undertreated. The negative perception and lack of understanding of this condition prevents millions of people from seeking appropriate and on-time medical help, leading to distress...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Santiago Almanzar, Nirsarg Shah, Suril Vithalani, Sandip Shah, James Squires, Raghu Appasani, Craig L. Katz
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Ubiquity Press 2014
Materias:	attitudes depression health knowledge India mental health illiteracy mental illness social stigma Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7f6483ca3d1143408cfc75ebff8f9a06
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:7f6483ca3d1143408cfc75ebff8f9a06
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7f6483ca3d1143408cfc75ebff8f9a062021-12-02T08:32:50ZKnowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India2214-999610.1016/j.aogh.2014.04.001https://doaj.org/article/7f6483ca3d1143408cfc75ebff8f9a062014-06-01T00:00:00Zhttps://annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/116https://doaj.org/toc/2214-9996Background: Clinical depression is a major leading cause of morbidity and mortality but it is oftentimes overlooked and undertreated. The negative perception and lack of understanding of this condition prevents millions of people from seeking appropriate and on-time medical help, leading to distress and increased burden for affected people and their families. The implementation of public education campaigns and training of non-psychiatric health professionals on mental health and clinical depression has been neglected in several countries, including India, which is the second most populous country in the world with a population of more than 1.2 billion people, almost one-fifth of the world's population. Objective: This study sought to explore the knowledge and attitudes toward the diagnosis and treatment of clinical depression in nonpsychiatric health care providers in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted over a 4-week period In Gujarat, India among resident physicians and community health workers about their knowledge and views on clinical depression. Findings: We found considerable stigma and misinformation about depression especially among health care workers in India. Most of the community health workers had a great deal of difficulty when defining clinical depression, and a large majority said that they never heard about depression or its definition and although the overwhelming majority of respondents did not believe that clinical depression results from a punishment from God (82% disagreed or strongly disagreed with this belief) or evil spirits (77.5%), a much smaller proportion disagreed with the assertions that depression was either solely due to difficult circumstances (38.2%) or that sufferers only had themselves to blame (47.2%). Meanwhile, only 32.6% disagreed with the position that clinical depression is a sign of weakness and 39.4% disagreed with the statement that suicide was a sign of weakness. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the considerable public health priority facing India’s policymakers and planners to better educate more non-psychiatric physicians and community health workers to identify, understand, and respond to early signs of mental illnesses, especially clinical depression.Santiago AlmanzarNirsarg ShahSuril VithalaniSandip ShahJames SquiresRaghu AppasaniCraig L. KatzUbiquity Pressarticleattitudesdepressionhealth knowledgeIndiamental health illiteracymental illnesssocial stigmaInfectious and parasitic diseasesRC109-216Public aspects of medicineRA1-1270ENAnnals of Global Health, Vol 80, Iss 2, Pp 89-95 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	attitudes depression health knowledge India mental health illiteracy mental illness social stigma Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270
spellingShingle	attitudes depression health knowledge India mental health illiteracy mental illness social stigma Infectious and parasitic diseases RC109-216 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Santiago Almanzar Nirsarg Shah Suril Vithalani Sandip Shah James Squires Raghu Appasani Craig L. Katz Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India
description	Background: Clinical depression is a major leading cause of morbidity and mortality but it is oftentimes overlooked and undertreated. The negative perception and lack of understanding of this condition prevents millions of people from seeking appropriate and on-time medical help, leading to distress and increased burden for affected people and their families. The implementation of public education campaigns and training of non-psychiatric health professionals on mental health and clinical depression has been neglected in several countries, including India, which is the second most populous country in the world with a population of more than 1.2 billion people, almost one-fifth of the world's population. Objective: This study sought to explore the knowledge and attitudes toward the diagnosis and treatment of clinical depression in nonpsychiatric health care providers in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted over a 4-week period In Gujarat, India among resident physicians and community health workers about their knowledge and views on clinical depression. Findings: We found considerable stigma and misinformation about depression especially among health care workers in India. Most of the community health workers had a great deal of difficulty when defining clinical depression, and a large majority said that they never heard about depression or its definition and although the overwhelming majority of respondents did not believe that clinical depression results from a punishment from God (82% disagreed or strongly disagreed with this belief) or evil spirits (77.5%), a much smaller proportion disagreed with the assertions that depression was either solely due to difficult circumstances (38.2%) or that sufferers only had themselves to blame (47.2%). Meanwhile, only 32.6% disagreed with the position that clinical depression is a sign of weakness and 39.4% disagreed with the statement that suicide was a sign of weakness. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the considerable public health priority facing India’s policymakers and planners to better educate more non-psychiatric physicians and community health workers to identify, understand, and respond to early signs of mental illnesses, especially clinical depression.
format	article
author	Santiago Almanzar Nirsarg Shah Suril Vithalani Sandip Shah James Squires Raghu Appasani Craig L. Katz
author_facet	Santiago Almanzar Nirsarg Shah Suril Vithalani Sandip Shah James Squires Raghu Appasani Craig L. Katz
author_sort	Santiago Almanzar
title	Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India
title_short	Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India
title_full	Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India
title_fullStr	Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India
title_full_unstemmed	Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India
title_sort	knowledge of and attitudes toward clinical depression among health providers in gujarat, india
publisher	Ubiquity Press
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/7f6483ca3d1143408cfc75ebff8f9a06
work_keys_str_mv	AT santiagoalmanzar knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia AT nirsargshah knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia AT surilvithalani knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia AT sandipshah knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia AT jamessquires knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia AT raghuappasani knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia AT craiglkatz knowledgeofandattitudestowardclinicaldepressionamonghealthprovidersingujaratindia
_version_	1718398494967857152

Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Clinical Depression Among Health Providers in Gujarat, India

Ejemplares similares