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Why people choose to participate in psychotherapy for depression: a qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION
There is little known about the motivations for people to participate in psychotherapy for depression.


AIM
To explore why people, with a diagnosis of major depressive episode, chose to take part in a psychotherapy study and what they expected it to involve.


METHOD
This was a qualitative study of participants' motivations and understandings of psychotherapy for depression. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis.


FINDINGS
Eight females and eight males with an age range from 21 years to 55 years were recruited. Three themes were identified that described why participants chose to participate in psychotherapy: medication was not enough; a turning point and making sense of experience. The participants chose to participate in psychotherapy after finding that medication was insufficient and this combined with a sense of crisis motivated them to engage in psychotherapy in order to learn to manage their mood differently.


DISCUSSION
The participants recognised that they wanted a framework other than a medical model with its reliance on medication, in order to make sense of their experiences and develop new self-management strategies.


IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Our study suggests that some people experiencing a serious mood disorder access psychotherapy after 'hitting rock bottom' and finding insufficient help from medications. Mental health nurses need to be aware people do not always want a medical model approach to treatment of serious mood disorders and they need to provide the opportunity of engaging in a psychotherapeutic framework in order to better understand and manage their mood.