Exploring general practitioners' management of patients with depression within the private health care sector in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Date
2013-04-03
Authors
Repensek, Milica
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Abstract
The majority of persons within South Africa (of whom 16% have claimed to have suffered from common mental disorders such as depression) that use medical treatment do so through primary care (Patel et al., 2007; Williams et al., 2007). However, studies have shown that general practitioners (GPs) often overlook, ignore, misdiagnose and even offer inappropriate treatment for mental illness (c.f. Lotrakul & Saipanish, 2009; Qwabe, 2009). Since South Africa is comprised of a multitude of diverse peoples from varying culture backgrounds, cultural diversity needs to be considered within every interaction, especially when GPs consult with individuals with depression. This study, thus, aims to explore GPs’ management of depression by investigating diagnosis or detection, treatment and referral patterns of GPs where their considerations of patient’s cultural worldviews are also investigated. This study utilised a semi-structured interview schedule on a convenient sample of six GP’s. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse salient themes from the data. Eight themes were found, namely: diagnosing, treating and referring patients with depression, cultural implications in general practice, training of GPs, the evolution of the medical field and its practices, disadvantaged communities and access to health care resources as well as the ethics of practice. These results are discussed in relation to local and international literature in the field.