“I mean what is depression?” A qualitative exploration of UK General Practitioners’ perceptions of distinctions between emotional distress and depressive disorder
“I mean what is depression?” A qualitative exploration of UK General Practitioners’ perceptions of distinctions between emotional distress and depressive disorder
Objective: detection of depression is a key part of primary mental health care. However, determining whether depressive disorder is or is not present in primary care patients is complex. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore General Practitioners’ (GPs) perceptions of distinctions between emotional distress and depressive disorder.
Design: qualitative interview study.
Setting: face-to-face and telephone interviews with GPs from the South of England.
Participants: GPs working in UK primary care practices (n = 21).
Method: interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide, were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed thematically.
Results: views were divergent when directly considering whether emotional distress could be distinguished from depressive disorder. Some GPs suggested a distinction was not possible as symptoms lay on a continuum, with severity as a proxy for disorder. Others focused on the difficulty of the distinction and were uncertain. Some GPs perceived a distinction and referred to emotional distress as more likely in the presence of a stressor with the absence of biological symptoms. It was also common for GPs to refer to endogenous and reactive depression when considering possible distinctions between distress and depressive disorder.
Conclusions: GPs’ perceptions of when emotional symptoms reflect disorder varied greatly, with a broad range of views presented. Further research is needed to develop more consistent frameworks for understanding emotional symptoms in primary care.
Geraghty, Adam
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Santer, Miriam
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Beavis, Charlotte
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Williams, Samantha
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Kendrick, Tony
c697a72c-c698-469d-8ac2-f00df40583e5
Terluin, Berend
275934a5-3d48-42ad-9aef-a4958280b8eb
Little, Paul
1bf2d1f7-200c-47a5-ab16-fe5a8756a777
Moore, Michael
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Geraghty, Adam
2c6549fe-9868-4806-b65a-21881c1930af
Santer, Miriam
3ce7e832-31eb-4d27-9876-3a1cd7f381dc
Beavis, Charlotte
e0ca2cb7-98a5-42d2-b328-9aae39f4894e
Williams, Samantha
7cec7c3e-7247-473e-8121-f26b625893e1
Kendrick, Tony
c697a72c-c698-469d-8ac2-f00df40583e5
Terluin, Berend
275934a5-3d48-42ad-9aef-a4958280b8eb
Little, Paul
1bf2d1f7-200c-47a5-ab16-fe5a8756a777
Moore, Michael
1be81dad-7120-45f0-bbed-f3b0cc0cfe99
Geraghty, Adam, Santer, Miriam, Beavis, Charlotte, Williams, Samantha, Kendrick, Tony, Terluin, Berend, Little, Paul and Moore, Michael
(2019)
“I mean what is depression?” A qualitative exploration of UK General Practitioners’ perceptions of distinctions between emotional distress and depressive disorder.
BMJ Open, 9 (12).
(doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-032644).
Abstract
Objective: detection of depression is a key part of primary mental health care. However, determining whether depressive disorder is or is not present in primary care patients is complex. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore General Practitioners’ (GPs) perceptions of distinctions between emotional distress and depressive disorder.
Design: qualitative interview study.
Setting: face-to-face and telephone interviews with GPs from the South of England.
Participants: GPs working in UK primary care practices (n = 21).
Method: interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide, were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed thematically.
Results: views were divergent when directly considering whether emotional distress could be distinguished from depressive disorder. Some GPs suggested a distinction was not possible as symptoms lay on a continuum, with severity as a proxy for disorder. Others focused on the difficulty of the distinction and were uncertain. Some GPs perceived a distinction and referred to emotional distress as more likely in the presence of a stressor with the absence of biological symptoms. It was also common for GPs to refer to endogenous and reactive depression when considering possible distinctions between distress and depressive disorder.
Conclusions: GPs’ perceptions of when emotional symptoms reflect disorder varied greatly, with a broad range of views presented. Further research is needed to develop more consistent frameworks for understanding emotional symptoms in primary care.
Text
GP Distress Qual Paper-BMJ Open-Resubmission2-Final-Clean
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 11 November 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 December 2019
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Local EPrints ID: 436067
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/436067
ISSN: 2044-6055
PURE UUID: 8e28049f-1efb-4bb0-bb8b-2c5eda45286a
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Date deposited: 27 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 12 Jul 2024 04:06
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Author:
Charlotte Beavis
Author:
Berend Terluin
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