Depression

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Depression
Student name

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Depression
Depression is the most common but serious mental illness, which is characteristic by a
persistent feeling of sadness and a loss of interest in activities that a person normally enjoy. It
is determined as a person’s inability to do daily activities, normally for 14 days (World health
organization, 2018). Depression seems to affect everyone equally but females are more likely
to be depressed than man. This mental health issue is not the new concept for the world; it
has been affecting people for many years. Nearly 300 million people of all age groups suffer
from depression. It ranked as the single largest contributor to the international disability. It is
the major contributor to death by suicides and accounts for nearly 800000 deaths per year.
Sign and symptoms if this disorder includes depressed mood, reduced interest, weight loss,
insomnia, fatigue, feeling worthlessness, impaired ability to think, and loos of energy. In this
essay report, the topics like assessment, recovery concepts, the role of nurses to reduce the
issues, essential therapeutic relationship and treatment strategies, intervention, the role of the
nurses working with the multidisciplinary team and client participation will be included.
Assessing a patient with depression is quite difficult as most of the patient mention
low mood as the symptom of their physical health issues. Assessing the sign and symptoms is
the major contributor to provide a better health care and treatment to the patient with
depression, the nursing assessment should include assessing general appearance and motor
behaviors, mood and affects, the thought process and content, judgement and insight, roles
and relationship of the person with others, and using depression rating scale or tools like
Hamilton depression rating scale and Patient health Questionnaires-9 (PHQ-9). Hamilton
Depression Rating Scale is the multiple item questionnaires use to indicate depression, it was
designed for adults. The patients are rated by the clinicians on seventeen to twenty-nine items
scored on two different point scale; 3 points or 5 point scale. The original scale had only 17

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items but the new version contains 29 items. According to Olden, Rosenfeld, Pessin, and
Breitbart (2008), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale is highly reliable and has concurrent
validity with the diagnosis of depression. PHQ-9 tool also has an excellent choice for
providers and researchers due to its brief nature and easy scoring method (Richardson,
McCauley, Grossman, McCarty, Richards, Russo, & Katon, 2010).
According to Vittengl, Clark, and Jarrett (2009), In clinical medicine area, the term
recovery has connoted the act of gaining the normal psychological health like before.
Remission is the related word that indicated a temporary abatement of the symptoms of
depression. Recovery occurs when the severity of the symptoms decreases below the
threshold used for defining the onset. Definition of remission term parallels the traditional
scientific concept of convalescence, the transitional stage of reintegration after the health
issue (Novick, Montgomery, Vorstenbosch, Moneta, Dueñas, & Haro, 2017). Therefore the
trajectory of the process is an important additional dimension which requires a longitudinal
consideration of the disease development, acute, residual and encompassing prodromal
symptoms. Recovery is not just about curing the symptoms associated with the disorder but
also achieving the complete mental health and returning the patient to his or her normal
condition. According to a study published by Stotland (2012), treatment of this health issues
considers adequate and successful when the patient’s function and the mood seemed to be
better after the treatment than before. The only measure of health improvement was that the
patient reports of function and the reduction in symptoms
The therapeutic nurse-client relationship is the basis, the very core, of all psychiatric
nursing treatment approaches regardless of the specific aim. The very first process between
nurse and client is to establish an understanding in the client that the nurse is entering into a
relationship with the client that essentially is safe, confidential, reliable, and consistent with

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appropriate and clear boundaries (Fonagy & Allison, 2014). It is true that disorders that have
strong biochemical and genetic components such as schizophrenia and major affective
disorders cannot be healed by therapeutic means. However, many of the related emotional
problems such as poor self-image and low self-esteem can be significantly improved through
a therapeutic nurse-client relationship (Sucala, Schnur, Constantino, Miller, Brackman, &
Montgomery, 2012).
Establishing a therapeutic alliance or relationship with a client takes time. Skills in
this area gradually improve with guidance from those with more skill and experience. When
clients do not engage in a therapeutic alliance, chances are that, no matter what plans of care
or planned interventions are made, nothing much will happen except mutual frustration and
mutual withdrawal (Zuroff,s Kelly, Leybman, Blatt, & Wampold, 2010). The nurse-client
relationship is often loosely defined, but a therapeutic relationship incorporating principles of
mental health nursing is more clearly defined and differs from other relationships. A
therapeutic nurse-client relationship has specific goals and functions. Goals in a therapeutic
relationship include the following: Facilitating communication of distressing thoughts and
feelings Assisting clients with problem-solving to help facilitate activities of daily living
Helping clients examine self-defeating behaviors and test alternatives Promoting self-care
and independence (Arnow et al., 2013)
With the modern therapies available, treatment of depression is highly successful.
People who are depressed should not hesitate to contact their GP, who may help them resolve
the problem or refer them to a mental health professional. The type of treatment depends on
the type of depression and its severity. Antidepressant drugs help to relieve the depression,
restore normal sleeping patterns and appetite, and reduce anxiety. They work by modifying
the activity of neurotransmitter pathways. There are a number of categories of