2 hours ago
1
Findings amusement that of the 64 per cent of 45-plus adults with slump who accessed superior healthcare services, lone 3 per cent were diagnosed with depression. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
When 73-year-old Ravi went to a superior wellness centre astatine Bardez, Goa, to code his exhaustion and slumber problems, small did the healthcare idiosyncratic realise that these were tell-tale signs of depression, which person present worsened implicit time.
“The doc prescribed aggregate medications targeting each symptom, alternatively than evidence-based treatments for slump specified arsenic the Healthy Activity Programme, a little intelligence attraction that tin instrumentality attraction of the information successful the aboriginal days,” says Vikram Patel, Paul Farmer, Professor and Chair, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
“This is simply a effect of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment,” says Vikram Patel, Paul Farmer Professor and Chair, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School who is besides 1 of the elder authors of a caller survey ‘Depression Diagnosis, Treatment, and Remission Among Adults successful India.’ Published successful the Journal of American Medical Association (Psychiatry) recently, the survey finds that much than 95 per cent of middle-aged and older adults with depression, (estimated astatine 29-30 cardinal people) did not person attraction that could person helped them retrieve due to the fact that of misdiagnosis.
“This is contempt two-thirds of these patients having visited a wellness centre,” Prof Patel says, arguing wherefore frontline wellness workers tin adjacent the diagnosis spread and assistance the aged colonisation successful distant areas with a elemental psychosocial involution similar the Healthy Activity Program.
WHAT THE STUDY SAYS
The survey tracked 65,121 participants from 2017 to 2018. Findings amusement that of the 64 per cent of 45-plus adults with slump who accessed superior healthcare services, lone 3 per cent were diagnosed with depression, 2 per cent received attraction and 1 per cent were successful remission. An estimated 29 cardinal middle-aged and older adults had untreated depression, 22 cardinal of whom lived successful agrarian areas.
HOW CAN ONE CLOSE THE GAP OF DIAGNOSIS?
“These findings suggest ample attraction gaps for slump diagnosis and attraction among adults successful India contempt a comparatively precocious usage of wellness services,” says Prof Patel. He suggests including a laic counsellor-delivered intelligence attraction into superior care. The Healthy Activity Programme (HAP) is simply a little intelligence attraction for terrible slump that is delivered by laic counsellors successful superior attraction settings. Consisting of behavioural activation, problem-solving and activation of societal networks, randomised trials person shown it helped trim the prevalence of slump aft six to 8 sessions oregon 2 months. It besides recovered that HAP participants maintained the gains they showed astatine the extremity of treatment.
Previous studies from India person reported sustained effectiveness and scalability of specified interventions, Dr Patel pointed out.
WHY ADDRESSING DEPRESSION IN OLDER ADULTS IS CRITICAL
The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan aims to summation work sum for intelligence wellness conditions by astatine slightest fractional by 2030. “Given that the prevalence of slump successful India increases linearly with age, middle-aged and older adults are a peculiarly important people radical for expanding coverage,” the study says.
.png "indianexpress.")
.png "khaleejtimes")
.png "arabnews")
.png "gulfnews"){kind=logo}
English (US) · 
Hindi (IN) ·