Name: Novie Queen B.

Bag-o Year and Section: XI – Newton

Teacher: Mrs. Irish O. Curilan Date: September 26, 2019

JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW

Weitkamp, Klein, and Midgley (2016) conducted a study about The Experiences of

Depression: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents with Depression Entering Psychotherapy

and stated that there was a lack of research on the experiences of those adolescents. It

measured the examination of the lived experience of adolescents who were diagnosed with

depression. Interviews were analyzed by the use of Interpretative Phenomenological

Analysis. The objective of this research was to construct on early prior researches by

reviewing the lived experience of adolescents that were identified to have depression

residing in Germany, as well as examining on how these young people had access to

therapy in the context of the German mental health system where reasons for any delay in

the stage of treatment was included.

The participants were 6 adolescents entering Germany’s ambulatory

psychotherapy. For mild to moderate depressive episodes, they all met the diagnostic

requirements for ICD-10. Each one had shown another disorder's comorbid symptoms as

well. All of them shared experiences of challenging life circumstances varying from loss

of close ones, parental divorce, psychological parental disorders, physical or sexual abuse.

Moreover, before entering psychotherapy, most of the young people had already suffered

from depression for a number of years.

 The observed study was a small-scale, investigative study in which the researchers

performed completely non-structured interviews with the adolescents. Using a semi-

structured interview system named Therapy Interview Expectations Schedule, Weitkamp

conducted the interviews at the Hamburg Medical School. At the beginning of the

interview, respondents were requested for their approval to record. The interview plan

includes (a) the experience of the individual with their depression and the impacts of it in

their daily lives, (b) their understanding of their problems, (c) their approach in seeking

medical treatment, and (d) expectations and aspirations of what will occur in therapy.

Instructions were translated from German and then re-translated back to English. The

schedule has only been used to show the particular area of interest and provided prompts.

It took about 1.5 hours for the full interview and consisted of two components: (1)

Expectations of Therapy Interview, and (2) the Kiddie–Schedule for Affective Disorders

and Schizophrenia (K-SADS; Delmo, Weiffenbach, Gabriel, Stadler, & Poustka, 2001;

Kaufman et al., 1997).

The findings led to four main themes, which came up in each interview of the

respondents, namely: (1) “Suffering is experienced as overwhelming,” (2) “An experience

of loneliness and isolation,” (3) “Struggling to understand the suffering,” and (4) “Therapy

as a last resort.” In the first theme, the participants spoke about the participant as well as

implications of being overwhelmed by the symptoms of depression. They had also spoken

about irritability and aggression, and in addition, impact of education was also seen. For

the respondents, the overwhelming feeling was like a blockage. The second theme heavily

associated with the overwhelming nature of emotions was the experience of isolation and

loneliness depicted by all research respondents. The interview expressed a feeling of fear
of being alone; a fear of being left to fight all by itself against the overwhelming feelings.

Indirect accounts of fear stigmatization also voiced isolation. Next, the third theme,

persistent in the records of the participants, was the concept that they could not comprehend

what was going on. It seemed that this “not knowing” was as upsetting as the symptoms.

And lastly, “Therapy as Last Resort”. The authors captured the unwillingness to seek

professional help, as well as individual efforts to cope with it. The poor engagement in

risky behavior or having time with friends as a way to get away with trouble for a while

was the most used means by the respondents.

To explore the depression experience in a German YP sample was the purpose of

this conducted study. “Suffering is experienced as overwhelming,” “An experience of

loneliness and isolation,” “Struggling to understand the suffering,” and “Therapy as a last

resort” were the four interrelated themes that were recognized in each respondent’s

interview and were to be discussed. The "overwhelming" nature of their diagnoses and

suffering was a dominant experience. Accompanied by powerful emotions of hopelessness

and a lack of command, the reports were as if the respondents were blocked by the "chaos"

they encountered. It implied or suggested that to help alleviate viewed hindrances to

treatment and to understand what they are encountering was to have a quality knowledge

about depression. In the meta-synthesis of Dundon (2006), it appeared to suggest that the

identification of depression in the participants would continuously necessitate adults to be

considerate and attentive to the symptoms of depression, as respondents might not reveal

their problems to friends. Whilst the interviews seemed to have a feasible technique for

this specific stage of development, perhaps it would be important to consider for future

researches.
 A large gap in provisions in mental health care for adults was still present in the

country of Germany. Symptoms of depression were predominant in young people and

adolescents (YP; Bettge et al., 2008). There was about 5.6% of adolescents aged between

13 to 18 years old met the distinctive criteria for depression (Costello, Erkanli, and Angold,

2006). According to World Health Organization (2003) and Ravens-Sieberer et al., (2008),

there were poor rates of treatment in young people, which identified mental health

problems receiving any kind of treatment were experienced by less than half of adolescents

and children. Additionally, it was a major issue regarding to the delay in receiving

professional treatment. (Korczak and Goldstein, 2015; McGorry, Purcell, Goldstone and

Amminger, 2011). Most adolescent depression instances remained unseen. Trouble in

distinguishing signs of depressive order from obsolete but persistent perceptions of

“ordinary” behaviors of adolescents. According to APA (2013), other characteristics

appeared to vary although the key symptoms of a major period of depression might be

identical to adolescents and adults. Irritability, for example, has been recognized in the

DSM- 5 together with depressed mood as an extra feature of teenage anxiety. Some study

has been conducted to investigate young people’s own experience of depression. New

Zealand adolescents with depression were involved in a research. In a questionnaire, the

researchers recognized irritability as the most prevalent feature together with social

problems. (Crowe, Ward, Dunnachie, and Roberts, 2006). Farmer (2002) stated that it was

important to consider qualitative variables and also the mentioned symptoms in ICD-10

(World Health Organization, 2010) and DSM-5 (APA, 2013) for a better knowledge of

adolescent depressive experiences.