Depression recovery 'should take into account patient's sense of wellness'

Positive signs are important in measuring how well a patient, who may be using home care, is recovering from depression, research shows.

Doctors at the University of Michigan Health system have said that doctors should not just check a patient's lack of individual symptoms of a list, but they should look at positive signs, according to research published in journal General Hospital Psychiatry.

These would include a patient's feeling of returning to normality, sense of wellbeing, satisfaction with life an ability to cope with life events.

Lead author Donald E Nease explained that this would include "a patient's feeling that they are returning to 'normal,' their sense of well-being, their satisfaction with life and their ability to cope with life's ups and downs."

Doctors developed a Remission Evaluation and Mood Inventory Tool, known as REMIT, consisting of five questions to evaluate the patient's own sense of recovery in such a way.

In other news, depressed patients were found to be 76 per cent more likely not to comply with the prescribed treatment for critical illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, according to research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

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