A six months follow up of unipolar depression-recovery and dysfunction in a naturalistic prospective study

The study will evaluate the short-term outcome of major depressive episode in a naturalistic treatment setting.

OBJECTIVES- 1)To assess the severity of depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive episode at 1st,3rd and 6th-month follow-up in a naturalistic treatment setting. 2)To assess melancholic symptoms in patients with Major depressive episode at 1st,3rd and 6th-month follow-up in a naturalistic treatment setting. 3) To assess the correlation between baseline symptom severity, melancholic symptoms, suicidality and functioning in patients with major depressive episode at 1st,3rd and 6th-month follow-up in a naturalistic treatment setting.

The study will be carried out over a period of around 24 months on 65 patients from psychiatry OPD or inpatient ward..Patients with current Diagnosis of Depressive episode (single episode/recurrent) as per ICD-11 and The inventory of depressive symptomatology : Clinician (IDS-C) score of >13, aged 18-60 years, either gender, able to give written informed consent; able to understand English, Hindi or Kannada, on adequate dose of antidepressant treatment will be included except patients non-compliance to medications, not cooperative for comprehensive assessments, receive ECT or ketamine infusion therapy. Primary data will be collected by obtaining first-hand information from the respondents themselves regarding the socio-demographic details based on a semi-structured proforma followed by administration of a series of rating scales over a period of one and half to two hours to evaluate melancholic symptoms, suicidal risk and functioning at baseline.Same patients will be interviewed again in follow up at first(4-6 weeks), third(12-14 weeks) and sixth(24-26 weeks)month during their out-patient visit over a period of 40-50 minutes. During this interview depressive symptoms and functioning will be assessed. Finally the data will be streamlined and statistical analysis will be carried out to assess analyse and correlate the symptoms of the illness and findings of the study using scientific methods.