Living with Mental Disorder: Insights from Qualitative Research

556 Pages·2016·28.66 MB·English

by  Jacqueline Corcoran

Living with Mental Disorder
This evidence-based text puts a human face on mental disorders, illuminating the lived
experience of people with mental health difficulties and their care-givers. Systematically
reviewing the qualitative research conducted on living with a mental disorder, this text
coalesces a large body of knowledge and centers on those disorders that have sufficient
qualitative research to synthesize, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism,
intellectual disabilities, mood disorders, schizophrenia, and dementia.
Supported by numerous quotes, the text explores the perspective of those suffering with a
mental disorder and their caregivers, discovering their experience of burden, their
understanding of and the meaning they give to their disorder, the strengths and coping they
have used to manage, as well as their interactions with the formal treatment system and the
use of medication.
This book will be of immense value to students, practitioners, and academics that support,
study, and treat people in mental distress and their families.
Jacqueline Corcoran is Professor of Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
She has published 14 texts and non-fiction books in social work, mental health, and counseling,
and over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as novels. She also maintains a small
private practice. For more information, see www.jacquelinecorcoran.com.
Routledge Key Themes in Health and Society
Available titles include:
Turning Troubles into Problems
Clientization in human services
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Compassionate Communities
Case studies from Britain and Europe
Edited by Klaus Wegleitner, Katharina Heimerl and Allan Kellehear
Exploring Evidence-based Practice
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On the Politics of Ignorance in Nursing and Healthcare
Knowing ignorance
Amélie Perron and Trudy Rudge
Empowerment
A critique
Kenneth McLaughlin
The Story of Nursing in British Mental Hospitals
Echoes from the corridors
Niall McCrae and Peter Nolan
Living with Mental Disorder
Insights from qualitative research
Jacqueline Corcoran
Forthcoming titles include:
Social Theory and Nursing
Edited by Martin Lipscomb
Identity, Ageing and Cultural Adaptation
Understanding longevity in crossdisciplinary perspective
Simon Biggs
Living with Mental Disorder
Insights from qualitative research
Jacqueline Corcoran
First published 2016
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 J. Corcoran
The right of Jacqueline Corcoran to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Corcoran, Jacqueline, author.
Living with mental disorder : insights from qualitative research / Jacqueline Corcoran.
p. ; cm. – (Routledge key themes in health and society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I. Title. II. Series: Routledge key themes in health and society.
[DNLM: 1. Mental Disorders–Review. 2. Caregivers–psychology–Review. 3. Nursing Research–Review. 4. Qualitative
Research–Review. 5. Research Design–Review. WM 140]
RC454
616.89–dc23
2015023818
ISBN: 978-0-415-73944-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-81664-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Goudy
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of tables
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction and overview
2 Methodology
PART I
Disorders in children
3 The lived experience of parents of children with ADHD
4 The lived experience of parents of children with autism spectrum disorders
5 The lived experience of parents of youths with intellectual disability
PART II
Disorders in adults
6 The lived experience of people with bipolar disorder
7 The lived experience of people with schizophrenia
8 The lived experience of women with depression
PART III
Disorders in older adults
9 The lived experience of adults with intellectual disabilities: health, sexuality, and aging
MATTHEW BOGENSCHUTZ AND JACQUELINE CORCORAN
10 The lived experience of adult child caregivers of parents with Alzheimer’s disease
HEEYHUL MOON AND JACQUELINE CORCORAN
11 The lived experience of older adults with depression
Index
Tables
3.1 Methodological features of primary studies and results from studies of parents of
children with ADHD
3.2 Final themes from studies of parents of children with ADHD
4.1 Data extraction of studies of parents of children with autism
4.2 Final themes from studies of parents of children with autism
5.1 Data extraction of studies of parents of children with intellectual disabilities
5.2 Themes from studies of parents of children with intellectual disabilities
5.3 Data extraction of studies of parents of adolescents with intellectual disabilities
undergoing transition
5.4 Themes from studies of parents of adolescents with intellectual disabilities undergoing
transition
6.1 Data extraction of studies of people with bipolar disorder
6.2 Themes from primary studies of people with bipolar disorder
7.1 Data extraction of studies of people with schizophrenia
7.2 Themes from studies of people with schizophrenia
8.1 Methodological features of studies and findings from studies of women with depression
9.1 Data extraction of studies of people with ID: overview
9.2 Themes from studies of people with ID: overview
9.3 Data extraction of studies of people with ID: sexuality
9.4 Themes from studies of people with ID: sexuality
9.5 Data extraction of studies of people with ID: aging
9.6 Themes from studies of people with ID: aging
10.1 Data extraction of studies of adult child caregivers of parents with Alzheimer’s disease
10.2 Themes from studies of adult child caregivers of parents with Alzheimer’s disease
11.1 Data extraction of studies of older adults with depression
11.2 Themes from studies of older adults with depression: experiences
11.3 Themes from studies of older adults with depression: causes
11.4 Themes from studies of older adults with depression: recovery
11.5 Themes from studies of older adults with depression: barriers to treatment
Acknowledgments
Meta-synthesis is a complex method that requires detailed attention to many systematic steps.
Therefore, no one person could carry out meta-synthesis alone, much less the ten that are
represented in this book. And it would not be desirous anyway since a one-person project is
susceptible to bias and selectivity. As a result, I was assisted by many people in the
implementation of this project. Sincere acknowledgments go to my research assistant
Francesca Teixeira who toiled over tedious searches, reference lists, and numerous other
details that contributed to this book. My good friend and expert qualitative researcher, Holly
Bell, was there at the start to help me make sense of themes and to talk with me about meta-
synthesis. My heartfelt thanks also go to colleagues, Matthew Bogenschutz, Joseph Walsh,
Heeyhyul Moon, and Masters of Social Work students who provided valuable contributions to
chapters, Julia Abell, Amber Berry, Emily Brown, Nathan Crooke, Paula Crooks, Megan Davis,
Stephanie Hill, Rebecca Hochbrueckner, Michelle Pineda, Rachel Spence, Thomas Allen
Stewart, and Cathleen Surface. I am also very grateful to the following students who
contributed data extraction and theme tables: Jessica Bennett, Rachel Brown, Cory Cummings,
Sarah Davis, James Gregory, Lindsay Higgenbottham, Olivia Hildebrande, Nicole Peterson,
and Brent Schildt. A reference librarian is an essential person on a team devoted to systematic
review; Nita Bryant at Virginia Commonwealth University trained many students on the
library search process and constructed search strings for the various database searches.
Without the assistance of all these people, it would have been impossible to complete this
volume.
1 Introduction and overview
In the US, there were 43.7 million adults diagnosed with a mental disorder in the past year,
representing 18.6 percent of the population (National Institute of Mental Health, 2012). For
children, one in five (about 20 percent) have or will have a mental disorder. Quantitative
studies have indicated the toll that mental disorders may take in terms of impaired educational
attainment (Mojtabai et al., 2015), employment in terms of days of disability (Bruffaerts et al.,
2012), and increased risk of health conditions, such as ulcer (Scott, Alonso, de Jonge, et al.,
2013), heart disease (Scott, de Jonge, Alonso, et al., 2013), diabetes (de Jonge et al., 2014),
cancer (O’Neill et al., 2014), and hypertension (Stein et al., 2014). Indeed, the burden of impact
of mental disorders is seen as more impairing in terms of personal and relationship functioning
than physical disorders, although role functioning was viewed as being similarly impaired
(Ormel et al., 2008). Further, there is an increased risk of suicidal behavior associated with
mental health disorder diagnoses (Nock et al., 2013).
Qualitative research and its synthesis
Along with quantitative research that can tell us about risks associated with mental illness,
qualitative research is ideally poised to relay the personal experience, as well as the meaning
people give for their suffering, and what has been helpful or not helpful in terms of recovery
and adjustment. Qualitative research further allows for the emergence of strengths and
resources that people activate to cope with mental disorder. Qualitative research has been
defined at its most basic level by asking “open questions about phenomena as they occur in
context rather than setting out to test predetermined hypotheses” (Carter and Little, 2007).
Data that is generated and analyzed is textual rather than numerical in nature and seeks to
comprehend the meaning of human experience (Carter and Little, 2007; Schwandt, 2007;
Strauss and Corbin, 1990).
Despite the advantages of qualitative research for the study of mental disorders, there are
also limitations, namely the lack of generalizability beyond the small sample that is typically
studied. To make up for this limitation and to contribute to knowledge building that
qualitative research can so vitally contribute, meta-synthesis has recently developed.
Meta-synthesis is designed to systematically review and integrate results of primary
qualitative studies that have been conducted on a similar topic (Finfgeld, 2003; Sandelowski
and Barroso, 2006; Paterson et al., 2001). Meta-synthesis is a valuable way to build knowledge
in a particular area of study. By drawing on all the relevant studies at once, it may offer new
interpretations of findings. Thus, the knowledge of a given subject may become more