Views of Depressed Patients in Pakistan Concerning Their Illness, Its Causes, and Treatments

Although the core symptoms of depression appear uniform across cultures, their presentations might vary from one culture to another. This interview study was part of a project to establish whether cognitive behavior therapy could be effective for the treatment of depression in a developing country. We interviewed outpatients from a university teaching hospital in Pakistan who were diagnosed as having depression. We tried to elicit their knowledge and perceptions of depression, its causes, and treatments, and their views about nonpharmacological treatments. We discovered that patients had very little knowledge of mental illnesses in general, and depression in particular. They believed that mental health problems were the result of stress or trauma, and that only medicines could help them. Patients had no knowledge of the roles of psychologists or psychotherapy. Their model of understanding mental illnesses appeared to represent a psychosocial understanding, with physical symptoms being their main concern.