title: An illness perception model of primary care patients' help seeking for depression.
abstract: Many people with depression recognize their symptoms as depression, but fail to seek treatment for a number of years. We aimed to explore the reasons for this. Thirty primary care patients who screened positive for depression participated in semistructured, face-to-face interviews. Transcripts were analyzed using grounded thematic analysis. Patients who sought depression treatment emphasized their understanding of depression, their belief that treatment would work, and the negative consequences that would ensue if they did not seek treatment. Patients who did not seek treatment emphasized that treatment would not be effective, thought that depression would not last very long, and believed that depression did not affect their everyday lives. Patients' illness perceptions of depression were represented by and organized using the framework of the Self-Regulation Model of Illness Behavior. This model might be useful for planning patient activation intervention studies to increase the uptake of depression treatment in primary care.
authors.affiliation: Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Medical Center, Bedford, MA 01730, USA. relwy@bu.edu
authors.forename: A Rani
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Elwy
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yeh
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Worcester
authors.forename: Susan V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Eisen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010465:Perception; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012307:Risk Factors; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult