Deemah Alateeq is a second year Resident M.D. in the Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In this interview, Deemah talks about attitudes and compliance being a key link in MDD treatment.
Deemah talked about a couple of key challenges in the treatment of MDD: insight into the patient’s problem and compliance. Patients need to be convinced of the treatment plan in order to comply with treatment and engaging with the patient’s family has an important role to play in compliance, and ultimately treatment success.
Within different cultures, patient’s beliefs can impact whether treatment is taken seriously. A biological basis to the problem is not always accepted. Patients may feel that they are being punished for having a poor faith or inadequate prayer life, or that they are cursed with the evil eye - this impacts their attitudes to psychiatry as a whole, their condition and their treatment.
When considering mild depression, Deemah notes that most patients who respond to antidepressants also improve with regards to function, relationships with family and their ability to work.