Abstract
The aim of the study was to provide psychoeducation for changing the attitudes and beliefs of patients with unipolar depression towards antidepressant treatment. The study was a prospective, comparative, randomized, interventional study conducted at psychiatry Out-patient Department in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Guntur which includes 89 patients with unipolar depression. Those patients who are receiving psychoeducation along with anti-depressant treatment are randomized into study group where as those patients only on anti-depressant therapy are grouped as control. The data was collected through Antidepressant Compliance Questionnaire at base level and after 2 months, where the study group received 3 sessions of psychoeducation with 15 days time interval between each session. Among 89 patients who participated in study, 08 could not be followed up in the study, hence dropped out. Out of 81 patients 38.2% were male and 61.7% were female. Majority of patients 44.4% were in the age group between 40 to 50 years and 87.6% of patients with 10th and below 10theducational status were found to have depression. Patient doctor relationship (Component 1 of ADCQ) had correlation of (r=0.68, p=0.0001) and have positive correlation with follow up (r=0.76, p=0.0001). The correlation is not significant at p=0.05. Correlation between positive belief on antidepressant (Component 3 of ADCQ) and follow up scores after psychoeducation (r=0.999, p=0.0001) which is significant at p=0.01. Correlation between partner's agreement (Component 4 of ADCQ) and follow up scores after psychoeducation (r=0.96, p=0.009) which is significant at p=0.05. By this we conclude that psychoeducation improves the attitudes and beliefs of the patients with unipolar depression towards antidepressants and it is main outcome is based on the patient doctor relationship where the sufficient time should be spent on the patient towards their feelings.
