Activation Therapy for Inpatient Depression
Patients with severe depression who require admission to an psychiatric unit usually have serious impairment in many areas of functioning... read more
Major depressive disorder (MDD) involves significant morbidity, suicide risk, and recurrent hospitalisations.
After recovery from a depressive episode, individuals often continue to experience problems with cognitive (i.e., thinking, organisation, memory) and general functioning, and report these problems to be distressing and disabling. Treatment of severe depression in New Zealand involves short-term treatment by Specialist Mental Health Services (SMHS) then discharge back to primary care. Following discharge, readmission to inpatient and outpatient services is very common.
We are therefore interested in developing a treatment for people with severe depression that could be used to aid in cognitive and functional recovery following discharge from SMHS.
Katie is a Senior Research Fellow and a Registered Clinical Psychologist. In the past five years, Katie has been awarded six research grants as Principal Investigator. Over the same time period, she has been a named co-investigator on six funded research projects. Katie has extensive experience in clinical trial methodology and is currently involved in several clinical trials.
More About Dr Katie DouglasDepression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.