Effect of Gender and Duration of Illness on Self Esteem and Emotional Control of Depressive Patients

INTRODUCTIONDepression is one of the major mental health problems affecting a large number of population especially younger generations across the world. Depressive disorder occurs with alarming frequency at least 10 to 20 times more frequently than Schizophrenia. Women experience depression about twice as often as men. The lifetime prevalence rate of depression for males and females are 13% and 21% respectively (Kessler et al., 1994). Low self esteem is a common attribute of depression. Individual may feel helpless to manage their lives and resolve problems. They may be viewing their lives and futures as black and unrewarding, feeling that change is not only pointless but also essentially unattainable. Dependency and self-criticism reflect relatively stable personality dimensions in patients with a mood disorder (Rosenfarb et al., 1998). The study of Cox et al., (2000) also revealed that depressive patients scored significantly higher on selfcriticism dimension measured by the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ). The study of Serretti et al., (1999) revealed that patients with mood disorder exhibited worse social adjustment and lower self-esteem than control subjects. Kornstein (2009) conducted a study on 235 male and 400 female depressive patients and found that chronicity of depression appears to affect women more seriously than men, as manifested by an earlier age of onset, greater family history of mood disorders, greater symptom reporting, poorer social adjustment and poorer quality of life.Depression is one of several disorders generically calledaffective disorders, which means depression badly affects the emotion of an individual. Depressed individuals often exhibit irritability, e.g. persistent anger, a tendency to respond to events with angry outbursts or blaming others, or an exaggerated sense of frustration over minor matters. The common emotional expression of young depressive patients is irritability.Many literatures indicate that the inability to control negative emotions can leave individuals vulnerable to stress and depression (Salovey et al., 2001). Ciarrochi et al., (2002) conducted a study on relationship between emotional management skills and depression, and observed that people who scored higher on measures of "managing the emotions of others" also reported lower levels of depression. The study of Downey et al., (2008) also indicated that the ability to manage and control emotions is related to severity of depression, and further reflected in significant deficits in the abilities to recognise and express emotions, manage positive and negative emotions adaptively and control strong emotions.Literature indicates that not many studies have been carried out in India for understanding the effect of gender and duration of depression on the self esteem and emotional control of depressive patients. Hence, the present research made an attempt1. to study the effect of gender on self esteem and emotional control of depressive patients.2. to study the effect of duration of illness on self esteem and emotional control of depressive patients.HypothesesSelf esteem of male and female depressive patients differ significantly, irrespective of their duration of illness.Self esteem of depressive patients differ significantly according to their duration of illness, irrespective of gender differences.Emotional control of male and female depressive patients differ significantly, irrespective of their duration of illness.Emotional control of depressive patients differ significantly according to their duration of illness, irrespective of gender differences.MATERIALS AND METHODSSampleA group of 118 depressive patients (63 male and 55 female depressive patients) were selected from different Govt. and private heath care centers of Kolkata following incidental sampling technique. Among them 70 (59.3%) patients were suffering from depression for more than one year and the rests i. …