An Extensive Study on Knowledge, Attitude and Perception (KAP) on Depression and its Management in General Population

Depression is common, complex, costly, debilitating psychiatric disorder. It may be described as feelings of sadness, loss or anger that interfere with a person’s everyday activities. Mental health is often overlooked in the management of patients in our health care ecosystem. Recognizing and managing mental illnesses such as depression by health care department is crucial. The aim of our study is to determine the Knowledge, Attitude and Perception of depression and its management with psychotherapy or antidepressant medication. A Prospective, Observational and Qualitative study was conducted to assess the knowledge among general population towards depression; we have divided 15 questions into three categories. Category 1 includes general questions about depression, category 2 includes yes, no, may or may not be questions. Category 3 includes treatment related questions. We have taken the percentage for each category, the percentage of category 1, category 2, and category 3 were 67.8%, 50.61%, 24.91% respectively. The average of 3 categories was 47.33%. So, we conclude that positive knowledge among general population towards depression as 47.33%. To assess the attitude and perception among general population towards depression, we included 15 attitude and perception questions. We have calculated the sum & average positive attitude and perception opinions of individuals who have taken part in our study. We observed positive attitude and perception among general population towards depression as 67.23%. Conclusion: From the results of our study, we conclude that many participants don’t have proper knowledge about depression. Numerous participants don’t know that there is existence of psychology department in treating depression and only very few people know about medication for depression.