People who are suffering from depression and having relatively sufficient knowledge about these disorders and treatment methods have increased chances of better outcomes in comparison of those who do not have such knowledge base.

Findings of a recently concluded ‘German Research Project’ indicate that providing all relevant and concerning information necessary for the patients are standard parts of the treatment process of affective disorders now. Klaus-Thomas Kronmuller and his colleague researchers at the University of Heidelberg conducted studies in order to assess the clinical impact of patient’s knowledge.

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The clinical study involved 62 patients who were suffering from major depression and were hospitalized for the first time. Detailed analysis of their knowledge about the depression and mania was carried out. All the 62 patients also took part actively in the ‘eight-hour psycho-educative program’ for a period of four weeks. This ‘psycho-educative program’ provided much information related to the symptoms, treatments, and ways to cop with the affective disorders.

Follow up stretched over a period of almost two years. During this follow-up period, 83.9% of the patients had remitted from the index depression and the average time to remission was 7.2 weeks. Almost 29% of the remitted patients experienced a recurrence after an average time of almost 37.5 weeks. Nearly, 16.1% of all the 62 patients had chronic depression.

Analysis of the results obtained from the study reveal that the patients suffering from chronic depression of recurrence had a drastically lower level of knowledge about the affective disorders. Patients who were at somewhat stable remission stage also indicated no significant differences at the initial stages of the treatment but there was a noteworthy improvement at the end of the treatment.

The researchers published a complete report of this clinical study in the “Journal of Affective Disorders”. The published report states,” patients’ knowledge of treatment was a prognostic factor for stable remission, in contrast with knowledge about symptoms and coping”.

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