Dimensions and Predictors of Personal Recovery in Major Depression

Over the course of recent years, the focus of interest of clinicians and individuals living with MDD shifted from just achieving symptomatic remission to clinical recovery, functional recovery and ultimately personal recovery. Personal recovery is an idiographic process, that is, each persons’ recovery is unique. Personal recovery is not a dichotomous outcome of interventions but rather a journey, a dynamic process, that requires a shared decision-making approach. Living well despite depressive residual symptoms and despite the scars of an often chronic, recurrent, long-lasting condition such as MDD (e.g. cognitive scars, social scars, physical scars) is not only possible, but should become the main objective of the management of MDD, as recently acknowledged by international clinical guidelines. The journey towards personal recovery in MDD may be viewed as a sequential, multi-dimensional route where several individuals contribute to the final outcome; it starts with strategies aimed at fostering clinical recovery in order to quickly move at implementing strategies to promote existential, functional, physical and social recovery. Healthcare providers, individuals living with the condition, peers and family members/caregivers can contribute each in its own way to this final outcome. Personal recovery in MDD is still understudied as compared to personal recovery as an outcome in other severe mental disorders; it is necessary and urgent that future studies can be funded and performed in order to achieve a better understanding of dimensions and predictors of clinical and personal recovery in MDD.