Manifestations of affective disturbance in sub-Saharan Africa: Key themes

A Feminist Phenomenological Description of Depression in Low-income South African Women

“…5! manifests differently in different cultures (Ngcobo & Pillay, 2008;Tomlinson et al, 2007). Additionally, some authors have suggested that the use of traditionally Western psychological approaches in South Africa is inappropriate (Ahmed & Pillay, 2004;Foster, 2008;Gilbert, 2006;Mkhize, 2008).…”

“…Furthermore, although the term "phenomenology" originally reflected the early psychiatrists' desire to gain an understanding of a disorder from the patient's point of view, it has come to be associated with the symptoms as seen from the professional's perspective, namely the clinical manifestations of an illness (Tomlinson et al, 2007). This is confirmed by Lupton (1995), who argues that many medical researchers pay scant attention to the subjective experiences of people affected by illnesses:…”

Validity/Reliability of PHQ-9 and PHQ-2 Depression Scales Among Adults Living with HIV/AIDS in Western Kenya

“…Depression in sub-Saharan Africa presents in forms (culturespecific idioms, somatic, based on interpersonal relationships or spiritual in nature) that may obscure detection [36][37][38] . However, depression exists at possibly higher prevalence rates than in western countries 37 according to 16 studies 4,5,7,[9][10][11][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] , and an additional 13 studies cited in 37 , of community and non-HIVspecific clinic populations, with generally higher rates for women than men 37,43 .…”

“…With one exception 15 , the sparse literature on depression among individuals living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa has shown elevated rates of depression relative to community samples 3,8,10,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] , consistent with western countries [26][27][28][29] . Thus, there is an urgency to incorporating mental health into HIV/ AIDS treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa, including western Kenya [30][31][32][33][34][35] .Depression in sub-Saharan Africa presents in forms (culturespecific idioms, somatic, based on interpersonal relationships or spiritual in nature) that may obscure detection [36][37][38] . However, depression exists at possibly higher prevalence rates than in western countries 37 according to 16 studies 4,5,7,[9][10][11][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] , and an additional 13 studies cited in 37 , of community and non-HIVspecific clinic populations, with generally higher rates for women than men 37,…”

“…However, depression exists at possibly higher prevalence rates than in western countries 37 according to 16 studies 4,5,7,[9][10][11][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] , and an additional 13 studies cited in 37 , of community and non-HIVspecific clinic populations, with generally higher rates for women than men 37,43 . Finally, depression is reasonably easy to elicit when sought and present 37 .Few studies have validated depression instruments for subSaharan cultures 10,11,46-52 . The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is the only validated instrument 11,46 that focuses on the nine diagnostic criteria for DSM-IV depressive disorders and is very brief 53 , an advantage in resource-constrained Kenyan clinics.…”