Prevalence, And Outcome of Management of Major Depressive Disorder Among Patients in Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, From January, 2012to December, 2014

This study examined the prevalence, and outcome of management of major depressive disorder among patients in Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Cross River State, from January, 2012to December, 2014. Four specific objectives were stated to determine the frequency of occurrence, medical and nursing management and outcomes of MDDs. 130 MDD patients (34 males and 96 females) admitted in the study area from January, 2012 to December, 2014 were used for the study. A checklist was developed and used to review the patients' records/folders. Data collected through the checklist were analyzed on frequency tables and presented in pie charts. They were interpreted using simple percentage analysis. The result showed that the rate of occurrence of major depressive disorder in Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, from January 2012 to December 2014 was low, with a ratio of 1:11; anti-depressants (100.00%), anti-psychotics (78.40%), mood stabilizers (46.10%) and anti- anxiety (46.10%) drugs were the major pharmacotherapy used in the management of clients with major depressive disorder in Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, with anti-depressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and aminomine oxidaze inhibitors (AMOIs), and typical and atypical anti-psychotics such as chlorpromazine, stelezine and clozepine olonzepine mostly in use as combined therapy and non-received only anti-depressants; while majority of the patients were managed using cognitive behavioural therapy, behavioural therapy and family therapy; but ECT was not widely used. The nursing management strategies mostly in use in the Hospital were: assessment and assistant with psychological need, close observation/monitoring, one-on-one psycho-education, medication education and nurses' review. Majority 81(62.31%) of the MDD patients had a good outcome (GO) after treatment. It was recommended that the management of MDD should include other forms of management strategies utilized in other establishments around the globe like combination of pamphlet, telephone psycho-education and calls to patients to remind them of medication time and keeping to appointment, further studies that will adopt the patient follow-up approach to determine patients rate of responding to treatment, patients satisfaction with care and care givers satisfaction were recommended since this present study was mainly a retrospective study, based on review of patients' folders and hospital records.