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Objectives: With support from others, individuals with depression can build skills and implement lifestyle changes that help them manage their illness. The objective of the current study was to understand how the CarePartners for Depression Program, a randomized clinical trial aimed at enhancing the role of caregivers in the management of depression, improved communication and shared understandings of depression among individuals with depression and their close others., Methods: We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with individuals with depression and their caregivers who participated in the CarePartners program. Interviews were qualitatively coded using a thematic analytic framework., Results: We conducted individual interviews with 39 participants in the CarePartners program, including 18 individuals with depression, 14 out-of-home care partners, and 7 informal caregivers. Three central themes were derived from analyses: (a) The quality of interpersonal relationships influenced the management of depression; (2) having clearly defined roles for CarePartners improved communication between CarePartners and individuals with depression; and (3) shared understanding of depression improved management of depression., Discussion: Our findings established the conditions under which the management of depression was influenced in a dyadic intervention. Dyadic interventions may make it easier for individuals to support patients with depression by fostering communication and collaboration., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Antidepressant drugs represent the mainstay of treatment for depression; however, nonadherence is a major problem. Attitudes are predictors of long-term adherence and drive medication use. The Attitudes Toward Medication-Depression (ATM-D) Inventory was developed and tested with 131 patients in primary care settings who reported a diagnosis of depression. Content validity was assessed by experts with a 94.4% agreement on item relevancy. Exploratory factor analysis showed three factors (course of medication treatment, identity, and control) that accounted for 57% of the total variance in the final 17-item scale. The instrument demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (α = .76-.84) and test-retest reliability (α = .74-.83). Results support the construct validity and reliability of the instrument and revealed unique insights into patients' cognitive representations of their antidepressants. This study supported that patients have cognitive representations related to depression and antidepressants that go beyond simple concerns about the effects of the medication.

The Peterborough Hospital Human Tissue Bank, based in the Cellular Pathology Department of the District Hospital, has been successful in supplying commercial biomedical companies with human tissue for research purposes. Tissue is obtained from routine surgical specimens sent to the laboratory for diagnostic testing and from cadaveric donors examined in the hospital mortuary. All tissue is obtained legally and with the full informed consent of the patient, donor or relative, as appropriate. The mechanism of retrieving, storing and supplying human tissue is described. In publishing the activities of the tissue bank at Peterborough, we wish to encourage others to consider the availability of human tissue in their locality. We recommend a strict legal and ethical code, particularly in relation to fully informed consent., (2000 FRAME.)

Objective: Because psychiatric screening methods are usually developed using psychiatric samples but not medical samples, they often include distress indicators that overlap with medical illness. This potentially inflates psychopathology estimates for medically ill patient groups. The objective of this study was to determine whether somatic distress indicator base rates are elevated in diabetes patients., Method: The occurrence of Symptom Checklist 90-R (SLC-90-R) somatic symptoms was studied in fifty-six diabetes mellitus patients (27 insulin dependent, 29 non-insulin dependent) with non-elevated SLC-90-R profiles, as compared to both community nonpatient and psychiatric patient norms., Results: Of the fifteen SCL-90-R items rated by endocrinologists as most likely to be diabetes-related, nine were endorsed more frequently by diabetes patients than by nonpatients: faintness/dizziness (endorsed by 36% of diabetics), reduced libido (endorsed by 41%), anenergia (68%), memory problems (66%), trembling (18%), numbness (55%), weakness (39%), overeating (59%), and somatic concerns (41%). Anergia and faintness/dizziness were endorsed more frequently by psychiatric patients than diabetes patients, whereas numbness was endorsed more often by diabetes patients., Conclusions: Conservatism is warranted when applying these somatic indicators of distress to diabetes patients. Further studies are needed to determine whether such illness overlap biases case classification.