Fear of Antidepressants Keep Many From Disclosing Depression
Staywell Custom Communications
With October being National Depression Education Awareness Month, we wanted to share some more information. Depression is a serious condition and shouldn’t be ignored. The following article gives some statistics and general information and is a great read for caregivers providing home health care.
(HealthDay News) — For a nation that seems ready to pop a pill for any ill, a new study suggests that the opposite seems true for some people with symptoms of depression, whose concerns about the side effects of antidepressants were the top reason they wouldn’t disclose warning signs to their doctors.
A phone survey of more than 1,000 adults who had previously participated in the California Behavioral Risk Factor Survey System, which probed depression-related beliefs, showed that 43 percent reported one or more reasons for not talking to their primary care physician about their depression. Nearly a quarter of them worried that their doctor would recommend antidepressants — the most frequently cited reason for withholding the information.
Other stated barriers to sharing depressive symptoms included the belief that it’s not a primary care physician’s job to deal with emotional issues (16 percent) and concerns about medical record confidentiality (15 percent). At least 10 percent said they were fearful of being referred to a counselor or psychiatrist and of being labeled a psychiatric patient.
“When patients are diagnosed with depression, they can go into a state of shock emotionally and view it as some kind of indictment of personality or character,” said Dr. Norman Sussman, a professor of psychiatry at New York University Langone Medical Center, who was not involved in the study. “People would almost prefer to get a serious medical diagnosis than be told they have a psychiatric disorder.”
The study is published in the September/October 2011 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine, and was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
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For information about how At Your Side Home Care can help you and your family with home health care in Houston, call 832-271-1600. At Your Side Home Care Houston can meet your care needs and provide you with the peace of mind that your loved one is safe and comfortable at home. We also offer exceptional services such as Alzheimer’s Care and New Mom Parenting Help.
Our Certified Nurse Aides, 24-Hour Live-in Assistants and Home Health Aides are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We also provide the security and confidence of 24-hour Telephone Assistance, so fast, reliable help is always available when it's needed. To learn more about our homecare services see our homecare services page.
Different people need different levels of homecare. To meet the requirements of our clients, At Your Side Homecare maintains consistent staffing levels of caring professionals. Homecare service is available for as little as a few hours a week, or as many as 24 hours a day, seven days a week
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