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Author: Iona

Infographics

To get our results (see separate post) out into the world, we’ve produced four infographics summarising them. You can view or download them below. (Click image to view it larger)

They’re aimed at the four groups of people we think could benefit most from hearing about what we’ve found: 

  • Researchers studying depression
  • GPs
  • Policy makers who could try to change how NHS depression treatment works
  • People with depression

Infographic for researchers

Are GP records a good measure of depression episodes and treatment? We looked at the results of depression screening questionnaires taken by around 157,000 UK Biobank participants For 1,342 people with results suggesting depression, we asked... Was depression ever mentioned in their GP records? 67% had no mention of depression in their records We also asked 26 people about their experiences of going to a doctor for depression 84% had gone to the doctor with half or less of their episodes so most episodes were not taken to a doctor 50% had used private talking therapy instead Many had managed their episodes using things like exercise, meditation, yoga or social contact Meaning many of the ways they treated their depression would not be visible in health records This research was co-produced with people with lived experience of depression It was part of the user-led citizen science project Depression Detectives https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/depressiondetectives/
Infographic for researchers

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Infographic for GPs

We asked 26 people about their experiences of going to a doctor for depression 84% had gone to the doctor with half or less of their episodes so most episodes were not taken to a doctor "I didn't think I was depressed 'enough' to justify going to a doctor" "[receptionists] would ask why I wanted to see a doctor and made me feel very uncomfortable" "I was dismissed and told it wasn't that bad and I just needed to buck up" "I really did not have the energy to keep pushing for appointments" "What really helped ... was the fact that I felt believed, they were supportive and non-judgmental" "My GP wasn't going to offer me talking therapy so there was no point in going once I had decided I didn't want drug treatment" "The GP who sees you often doesn’t know you at all. They are trying to keep appointment times short, and minimise time between appointments" Half of them had regretted not going afterwards This research was co-produced with people with lived experience of depression It was part of the user-led citizen science project Depression Detectives https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/depressiondetectives/
Infographic for GPs
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Infographic for policymakers

Infographic for policymakers

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Infographic for people with depression

Infographic for people with depression

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License. If you share them, please include a link to our blog (https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/depressiondetectives), so that people can find more detailed information if they want it.
For high-resolution copies please email iona.beange@ed.ac.uk

Our Methods

This summer, around 70 people with lived experiences of depression joined researchers for a citizen science project over Facebook. Together they co-created  a research question:

““Do people report all episodes of depression to their GP? And if not, why not?”.

[Read more about how they did that over on this blog post]

The group then discussed how best to approach this question and decided to divide the research into two areas:

  1. A data science project, carried out by PhD student, Melissa Lewins.
  2. A set of Focus group questions and an anonymous survey that would both be answered by members of the Facebook Group

Part 1: The data science project used UK Biobank; a research database that collects genetic and healthcare information from volunteers across the UK. Based on their answers to a Mental Health Questionnaire, Melissa identified 1,342 volunteers who were currently depressed and who had allowed researchers full access to their GP records. Will the same depression diagnosis show up in their GP records?

Part 2: Questions for the survey and focus group were developed by discussion in the project’s Facebook group. The focus groups had 10 participants across 4 separate discussion threads on Facebook. The survey was made available to all members of the Facebook group and collected 26 anonymous responses.

Our first look at the data from each of these sources backs up our suspicion that people don’t go to their GP every time they feel depressed,

Why not read our full results or view our infographics.

[This blog post was written by Sam Maccallum while on placement from the MSc in Science Communication and Public Engagement at The University of Edinburgh]

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