Award Date

1-1-2007

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

First Committee Member

Chris Heavey

Number of Pages

100

Abstract

There is an abundance of research on the psychopharmacological treatment of depression. However, recent controversy surrounding potential increases in suicidality with SSRI treatment has highlighted deficits in our understanding of antidepressant medication treatment. To explore the nature of changes in inner experience during the initiation of treatment with antidepressant medication we recruited three depressed individuals and conducted in-depth case studies of their experience over the first 10 weeks of treatment. The participants showed high degrees of comorbidity and different patterns of changes in symptoms over the course of the study. The one common finding was that none of the participants reported depression as being in their momentary experience after the first week. These three case studies support the importance of carefully exploring the inner experience of individuals on antidepressant medication and point to the potential value of research taking an idiographic approach before drawing generalizations about experience across individuals.

Keywords

Antidepressant; Early; Experience; Medication; Stages; Treatment

Controlled Subject

Clinical psychology; Mental health

File Format

pdf

File Size

2406.4 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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