Summary: | Despite having a mental health act and clinical practice guideline, Malaysian
patients with depression frequently progress to severe disease with poor prognosis.
Understanding the underlying factors which influence help-seeking behaviour
using a patient journey approach can provide insights for designing effective
interventions. The study aimed to determine the different stages of patients journey
for depression including awareness, screening, diagnosis, treatment, adherence,
and control using a semi-systematic review. The review was conducted through
(i) structured keyword search in Embase, MEDLINE, and BIOSIS databases using
OVID platform for English articles published between 2005 and 2021; and (ii) an
unstructured search on websites of Google, Incidence and Prevalence Database,
World Health Organization, and Malaysian Ministry of Health. Studies included
in the semi systematic review were based on Malaysian patients aged ≥18 years
at different journey stages for depression and publications from year 2005 to
July 2021. Thesis abstracts, letters to the editor, editorials, and case studies, or
articles representing smaller population subgroups were excluded. Three articles
out of 1062 retrievals through structured search and two articles out of four
retrievals through the unstructured search were included in the final synthesis.
We have found that the prevalence of major depressive disease (2.3%), low initial
screening (20%), diagnosis (50% to 60%) and adherence (30% to 40%), despite
high awareness (76.9%) and initiation of treatment (75.3%). Low education level,
ethnicity, stigma regarding mental health, and irrational prescription pattern of
primary care physicians were associated with poor mental health help-seeking
behaviour. Depression literacy can improve the help-seeking behaviour of the
patients.
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