Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T21:28:36.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Clinical Evaluation of Depressives Found in a Rural Survey in India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. N. Nandi
Affiliation:
R. G. Kar Medical College, Calcutta. P-535, Raja Basanta Roy Road, Calcutta-29, India
S. Ajmany
Affiliation:
Gokhale Memorial Girls' College, Calcutta
H. Ganguli
Affiliation:
Burdwan Sadar Hospital, Burdwan
G. Banerjee
Affiliation:
Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research, Calcutta
G. C. Boral
Affiliation:
Goenka Hospital, University College of Medicine, Calcutta University
A. Ghosh
Affiliation:
Calcutta University
S. Sarkar
Affiliation:
R. G. Kar Medical College

Summary

Those who were labelled as depressives in a rural survey were randomly divided into a Medicine group (who received antidepressive drug treatment), a Placebo group (who received placebo) and a Natural Process group (who received no treatment). The depth of their depression was assessed by Hamilton's Depressive Rating Scale before the beginning of the trial, on the 14th day and on the 28th day of trial. They were compared with a matched group of healthy controls and again with a matched group of depressives who attended an urban clinic for treatment.

The results indicate that the rural depressives who never sought treatment voluntarily were not different from those who sought treatment in clinics, so far as their response to treatment is concerned.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1976 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carothers, J. C. (1951) Frontal lobe function and the African. British Journal of Psychiatry, 97, 12.Google Scholar
Carstairs, G. M. (1958) Some problems of psychiatry in patients from alien culture. Lancet, i, 1217.Google Scholar
Dube, K. C. (1964) Survey of mental morbidity in India at Mental Hospital, Agra. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 6, 98.Google Scholar
Laubscher, B. F. J. (1937) Sex, Custom and Psychopathology in Bantu Tribes. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Sethi, B. B. & Gupta, S. G. (1970) An epidemiological and cultural study of depression. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 12, 14.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M., Cooper, , Brian, , Brown, A. C. & Kalton, G. W. (1966) Psychiatric Illness in General Practice. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Siegel, S. (1956) Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioural Sciences, pp 7583, pp 116–26. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc.Google Scholar
Taylor, , Lord, & Chave, , Sidney, (1964) Mental Health and Environment. London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.