Suffering Depression: Illness Perception of Informal Primary Caregivers of Medical Students With Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

When a family member has depression at a level that generates disability in various functional spheres, the informal primary caregiver (IPC) is the individual who provides the majority of emotional and basic needs of the patient. This person is usually a relative and is extremely important in the health-disease-care process. This phenomenological qualitative study aimed to analyze the illness perception, in IPCs of undergraduate medical students previously diagnosed with mild depression. It was found that IPCs generate perceptions about depression based on a lack of knowledge of the disorder, which leads to feelings of sorrow, anger, frustration, and fear, that could interfere with the evolution of patients. Psychiatric disorders, such as depression, strongly impact both patients and people around them. For mental health professionals, in order to provide a more complete clinical approach, it is important to understand the illness perceptions not only of patients but of family IPCs as well.