Help-Seeking for Emotional Problems in Major Depression

Abstract

To study help-seeking among the general population and people with major depression. 12-month help-seeking for emotional problems was assessed in a cross-sectional 2006 Estonian Health Survey. Non-institutionalized individuals aged 18-84 years (n = 6,105) were interviewed. A major depressive episode was assessed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The factors associated with help-seeking, received help, and health service use were analyzed. The prevalence of 12-month help-seeking for emotional symptoms was 4.8%. The rate of 12-month help-seeking in the depressed sample was 34.1%. Depressed people used non-mental health services 1.5-3 times more than non-depressed persons even when adjusted for the chronic somatic disorder. Only one third of depressed persons sought help, which was most of all associated with severity of depression. Underdiagnosis and undertreatment of depression leads to an increased use of expensive but non-specific health services by depressed persons.

Factors associated with help-seeking behaviour among individuals with major depression: A systematic review

“…Illness and symptom based need factors were assessed through structured interviews or questionnaires and were defined as professional judgements about people’s mental health status and therefore can be allocated to evaluated need, according to the “Behavioral Model of Health Services Use” [15]. Specifically, severity of depression was positively related to help-seeking in seven of the 16 datasets [31, 39, 40, 46, 47, 60, 61]. In addition, a longer duration of illness was positively related to help-seeking behaviour in six datasets [31, 34, 35, 40, 46] and was non-significantly related in three datasets [33, 38, 53].…”

“…However, in five datasets, this association was non-significant [34, 38, 40, 41, 60]. Demyttenaere, Bonnewyn [65] found that people with depression who had comorbid painful physical symptoms had lower rates of help seeking than those without these comorbid symptoms.…”

Obstructive Sleep Apnea and the Subsequent Risk of Depressive Disorder: A Population-Based Follow-up Study

“…Moreover, the symptoms of these illnesses are often overlooked, potentially leading to underappreciation, underdiagnosis, and undertreatment. 36,37 Secondly, although our study only included newly diagnosed cases to avoid potential effects of chronicity, it should be kept in mind that some of them may not be newly developed OSA cases. Patients might have had undetected OSA for years before being diagnosed.…”

Does level of leisure time physical activity, in a sample of patients with depression, predict health care utilization over a subsequent 5-year period? Findings from a Finnish cohort study

“…Depressive symptoms can also predispose to metabolic syndrome (Vanhala, Jokelainen, Keinänen-Kiukaanniemi, Kumpusalo, & Koponen, 2009). Although effective treatments are available, only a minority of people suffering from depression seek and receive appropriate treatment (Hämäläinen, Isometsä, Sihvo, Pirkola, & Kiviruusu, 2008;Kim, Cho, Park, & Park, 2015;Kleinberg, Aluoja, & Vasar, 2013). There are many reasons for this, including lack of resources, lack of trained health care providers, social stigma associated with mental disorders and inaccurate assessment (World Health Organization, 2015).…”

“…Depression is also associated with increased health care utilization. According to Kleinberg et al (2013), depressed people use health care services from 1.5 to 3 times more often than the non-depressed. Depression has been shown to increase the risk of HCU among people with unhealthy BMI (Atlantis, Goldney, Eckert, Taylor, & Phillips, 2012) and among patients with diabetes (Chan, Lin, Chau, & Chang, 2012), cancer (Lo et al, 2013) and cardiovascular diseases (Chamberlain et al, 2011).…”