ArticleNeuropsychiatric disease and treatment2021
Patient Expectations and Experiences of Antidepressant Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder: A Qualitative Study.
Article in Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- A Qualitative Study of the Treatment Experiences of Autistic Adults Allocated to Sertraline or Placebo for Anxiety in a Blinded Randomised Controlled Trial.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Healthcare Professionals' Perceptions of Anhedonia in Major Depressive Disorder and the Possibilities of Episodic Future Thinking Training: A Qualitative Study in a Tertiary Care Hospital.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- A Real-World Study on the Use, Effectiveness, and Safety of Esketamine Nasal Spray in Patients with Treatment-Resistant Depression: INTEGRATE Study.Advances in therapy · 2025Observational
- What do you expect from psychological care? A qualitative study of depressed patients' expectations treated in mental healthcare settings.Research in psychotherapy (Milano) · 2025Article
- The factors influencing self-management in patients with depression: a qualitative research from China.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Review
- Anhedonia in Major Depressive Disorder: Prevalence and Treatment Expectations and Satisfaction with Treatment Goals Among Patients and Physicians in Asia-Pacific.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2024Article
- Patient experiences of treatment-resistant depression (TRD): A systematic review and qualitative meta-synthesis.PLOS mental health · 2024Article
- The lived experience of depression: a bottom-up review co-written by experts by experience and academics.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2023Article
- Emotional blunting in patients with depression. Part I: clinical characteristics.Annals of general psychiatry · 2022Article
- Article
- The Case for the Patient-Centric Development of Novel Digital Sleep Assessment Tools in Major Depressive Disorder.Digital biomarkersReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThis qualitative study explored patient perceptions of the most burdensome symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD), the impact of symptoms on patients' daily lives, and patient expectations and experiences regarding the timing of onset of antidepressant pharmacotherapy. PATIENTS AND
methodsData were collected through facilitated, patient focus-group sessions in the USA between May and June 2019. Participants were adults with confirmed MDD who reported a major depressive episode within the past 2 years, for which they had received pharmacologic treatment for ≥6 weeks. The semi-structured discussion focused on the key topics of bothersome symptoms of MDD, the impact of symptoms on quality of life, and the effects of antidepressant treatment. Interviews were audio-recorded; findings were summarized using a content-analysis approach.
resultsFive focus-group sessions were undertaken, involving a total of 29 patients (each attended one session; mean age, 43.4 years; 72.4% female). Mean time since confirmed diagnosis of MDD was 13.1 years. The most commonly prescribed antidepressants received were bupropion (41.4% of participants), escitalopram (34.5%), and sertraline (34.5%). The most frequently reported bothersome MDD symptoms were fatigue (mentioned by 58.6% of participants), lack of motivation/loss of interest (51.7%), anxiety/panic (44.8%), sadness (41.4%), and lack of concentration/brain fog (41.4%). Socialization, family life, and work were the areas in which quality of life was most impacted. Participants expressed dissatisfaction with their antidepressant treatment. Fast symptom resolution was mentioned as a priority (defined as <1 week by 38.5% of participants and ≤1 month by 65.4%). Most participants had not experienced fast relief from their symptoms with current or previous antidepressant medications.
conclusionResults of this qualitative study suggest that fatigue, anhedonia, cognitive symptoms, and anxiety are some of the most bothersome symptoms for patients with MDD and highlight the importance of obtaining rapid relief from these symptoms in order to improve outcomes and patient satisfaction with antidepressant medication.
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