MAJOR PROJECT 3

Case Study of a Depressed Mother

Omar Ijaz
ENGL 210

Table of Contents

1.0

Background..2

2.0

Methodology4

3.0

Case presentation and Diagnosis.....5

4.0

Conclusion...6

Appendices7

References.8

1.0 Background:
Depression in Doha is becoming an increasingly common mental health issue with
around 27% of the people seeking treatment in the health centers suffering from some sort of
depression (Ahmed, 2010) as shown in Fig.1.

Figure 1 Percentage of Depressed patients seeking treatment.

And 18% of the total population experiencing symptoms of depression, a number

considerably higher than the global depression rate as well as other countries like the US and UK
(Doha News, 2013).

Figure 2 Percentage of Depressed people in the total population

An article, also published on Doha News, claims that around one-fourth of the teenage
population of Qatar suffers from depression.

Figure 3 A quarter of the teenage population suffers from depression

Another study conducted by Hamad Medical Corporation and Weil Cornell found that
17.6% of Arab women experience postpartum depression (PPD). For a health issue that is
considered to be a global epidemic by researchers, not a lot of people are aware of what it is and
how to combat this horrible health issue.
This report is a case study of a depressed woman and its purpose is to make people aware
that depression is indeed a real and serious health issue. It attempts to explain what depression is
and tries to draw up a few conclusions on how depressed women in general can be made to feel
better based on this patients experience.

2.0 Methodology:
One of the most commonly experienced symptoms of depression is anxiety disorders.
This is one of the reasons depressed people never come forward with their illness. Interviewing a
depressed person is in some cases meaningless because of the fact that they wont open to some
random stranger. The patient in question of this case study, however, is my mother. This simple
fact transformed a very formal interview (one in which the interviewer has to be very careful
about what they ask) to a friendly mother son informal conversation. The setting of this interview
4

was her own living room and in her own language, further aiding her to be completely honest
and open about how she feels and her experience on fighting depression. The interview however
was only used to gather information. The actual observations were made when I was spending
time with her throughout the week. I observed what she does when shes happy, what she does
when shes sad or depressed. This round the clock observations make for a good case study and
it is therefore possible to draw a few generalized conclusion as whole regarding this community
of depressed patients.

3.0 Case Presentation and Diagnosis:

The patient on whom this study is conducted is a married Pakistani woman who moved to
Qatar when she was 30 years old. She spent her childhood in a rural village among her four
siblings. Education was not considered a top priority back then so the highest education
qualification she possesses is a high school diploma. Her parents live in the same village they
used to decades ago, she moved to a completely different country soon after she got married to a
man from the same village. Her current family, a husband, two sons, and one daughter seem to
be supportive of her health issues.
She is 5 feet 3 inches and currently weighs a little under 200 pounds. This patient was
diagnosed with depression around a decade ago after receiving treatment for everything except
depression. It was this sudden change in her lifestyle that seemed to be the trigger of depression.
However, it did not start because of this. The patient admitted that she had been experiencing
some of the symptoms of depression ever since she was 20 years old, symptoms like prolonged
periods of sadness, loneliness, tiredness, and low self-esteem.
The trigger of this illness was mainly PPD, depression women get after giving birth to a
child, coupled with a rocky start to her marriage life. When asked about illnesses in her
immediate family members, she pointed out that her mother also suffers from undiagnosed
depression (refer to the transcript of the interview in Appendix A).
The general conclusions are as follows:

Depression is an illness that causes people to think that even the people who care
about them are supportive to them.

Receiving treatment when depression has reached a very high stage does not cure
the illness, it merely slows down the process of depression, as is the case of this
patient.

Depression causes people to have random outbreaks and periods of sadness.

The observations made of this particular patient are that:

She has recovered well over the course of her treatment. This is proven by the fact
that the periods of sadness and loneliness have been made considerably shorter.

The patient gets emotional the most when she is missing her mother back home.
This triggers a wave of uncontrollable thoughts and she tries to blame it on her
husband sometimes for not caring a lot in the start of her marriage.

Apart from the prescribed medicine, she feels better immediately when shown
that she is important and cared for.

Crying is this patients most common means of showing that she is depressed.
The other, less frequently, occurring are back pain, headaches, and low selfesteem.

4.0 Conclusion:
The causes of depression have remained to researchers and scientists for many years. Not
only because of the fact that the brain is an extremely complex organ of the human body, but
also because depressed people do not readily volunteer to be study subjects because of their
anxiety levels. The solution to this global health issue may not have been by conducting this one
case study but it does, however, provide a good insight into how a depressed person feels, how
they act, what they are most likely to think of when depressed. It therefore has to be concluded
6

that still more research needs to be done to discover a sure cure for this illness and that, more
importantly, it is imperative to love the people around you and be aware of the symptoms of
depression so that you may bring to the unaware person who is falling victim to depression.

Appendices
Appendix A
Transcript of the interview:

How old were you when you first experienced the symptoms of Depression?
o

How long did you go without proper medical attention?

o

20 years old

Almost 10 years

Is clinical treatment helpful in your case?

o

It was not helpful in the beginning, but once I found the right doctor and the
proper medicine I started to feel much better and the random outbursts of
depression decreased considerably.

What is the duration of your treatment?

o

The treatment itself has become less intense over the past few years, but I have to
take some of the medicines for the rest of my life

How often did you used to feel down/irritated/frustrated prior to the treatment?
o

Almost all the time. A small problem would make me feel depressed because of
overthinking. The sadness would last quite a while.

How often do you feel down/irritated/frustrated after the treatment?

o

Now it all depends on the severity of the incident. I have stopped overthinking a
lot and the sad times are never too prolonged.

What, besides medicine, makes you feel better when you feel depressed?
o

Spending time with my family, feeling appreciated, and worthy.

Does anyone of your parents have depression or other mental health problem?
o

Yes, my mother has also been suffering from depression since childhood because
of the loss of her mother and the abandoning of her father.
8

References

Prevalence of depression alarming, says study. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2016, from
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/136239/prevalence-of-depressionalarming-says-study

High prevalence of depression among teens in Qatar not normal, health officials say. (2013).
Retrieved June 20, 2016, from http://dohanews.co/high-prevalence-of-depression-amongteens-in-qatar-not/

Expert: Stress at work doubles depression risk for Qatars young. (2013). Retrieved June 20,
2016, from http://dohanews.co/expert-stress-at-work-doubles-depression-risk-for/