Research Journal #2

What is your topic? Or what are your key words thus far?
~My topic is still on depressive disorder awareness.
~Keywords so far:

• Depressive Disorders
• Awareness
• Treatment
• Anxiety
• Quality of Life

What is your research question? Have you decided to change it at all? And, if you have, how do I know that the way in which this question is formulated is appropriate to conduct a literature review with a systematic approach? 
~My research question is "How depressive disorders effect the quality of life and how awareness can be spread to seek treatment?"
~I have changed it up a bit, last time it was all over the place, I am a bit more precise about it right now. But I do wish to narrow it down, maybe towards depressive disorder in women or women who are pregnant. 

And what are the definitions on which it depends?
~Public Health; health of an entire population, which is regulated by experts in order to improve health.
~Policy Research; study of polices which currently govern a particular part of health, for my research.
~Practice Research; investigation regarding knowledge of a topic by practicing a way to fix it.
~Participatory Action Research; the subject, an individual with depressive disorder, will take part in the study where he or she will be in control of their own data and reporting.

What is your hierarchy of evidence? And how do I know you going about finding the most appropriate evidence/method for your research question?
~Hierarchy of Evidence

• Policy Method
• PAR 
• Practice Method
• Cohort Method
• Ethnography Method

~Well my research question primarily focuses on "how" something can be done, and in medical terms the "hows" are policies, for which it is the most important to change or add on to a policy, a way to govern a population. How depressive disorders effect an individual, but more how to let them know about treatment options.

~How do I know that the remit of the method itself is selecting the research, rather than just you on a whim? + 1 thing you found interesting + how you imagine using the source.
~Article 1
Xu, F., Austin, M., Reilly, N., Hilder, L., & Sullivan, E. A. (2012). Major depressive disorder in the perinatal period: using data linkage to inform perinatal mental health policy. Archives of Women's Mental Health,15(5), 333-341. doi:10.1007/s00737-012-0289-8

This article relates to my topic directly because it is testing out a current policy in place for treatment of women in their prenatal period with depressive disorders. It's testing out the way a hospital, clinic, or any medical practice in general will handle this matter. This is focused on prenatal women, so much narrowed down also. It lets us know if the current policy is working or not, so far it is for the most part as a prenatal condition treatment. But the policy currently needs to have some additions regarding the postnatal period of women's' lives as they still show signs of depressive disorders. One thing I found interesting, which mainly is what this article is on, is that there is a such thing as a policy for pregnant women with depressive disorders, I was not aware of this. I imagine using this source as a respect to policy methods, regarding my topic, and also when I am sure that I have narrowed my search to prenatal depressive women. 

~Article 2
Betancourt, T. S., Frounfelker, R., Mishra, T., Hussein, A., & Falzarano, R. (2015). Addressing Health Disparities in the Mental Health of Refugee Children and Adolescents Through Community-Based Participatory Research: A Study in 2 Communities. American Journal of Public Health,105(S3). doi:10.2105/ajph.2014.302504

This article relates to my topic because of the need for treatment it displays. It's a study done on two different communities from the same culture residing in America, and how they face barriers and cannot get treatment for depressive disorders, which is what the second half of my research question focuses on. It acknowledges that culture plays a big role in this, and we need to culturally make people aware of this problem, and what a burden it can cause on children and adolescents, specifically in this article. But I believe we can generalize this, as I face somewhat of this culture issue as well, and I am sure many adults also do, but never got treatment. One thing I found interesting is that children go through these disorders as well, more than I thought so, which is a sad fact. I imagine using this source as a way to show why there is a treatment gap.

~Article 3
Vogelzangs, N., Duivis, H. E., Beekman, A. T., Kluft, C., Neuteboom, J., Hoogendijk, W., . . . Penninx, B. W. (2012). Association of depressive disorders, depression characteristics and antidepressant medication with inflammation. Translational Psychiatry,2(2). doi:10.1038/tp.2012.8

This article relates directly to my topic, because it discuses very scientifically how inflammation in the immune system can bring about depressive disorder in an individual. It found, specially in men, that this was partially responsible for the depressive disorders, and this can solve the treatment gap as far as my question asks. If this in the future be generalized to all, then we can start solving this through treating the inflammation rather than the depressive disorder itself. I found interesting that this inflammation could mentally effect a person causing depressive disorders. I imagine using this source as a way to explain why depressive disorders happen, and the different way we can treat them.

~Article 4
Kathree, T., Selohilwe, O. M., Bhana, A., & Petersen, I. (2014). Perceptions of postnatal depression and health care needs in a South African sample: the “mental” in maternal health care. BMC Women's Health,14(1). doi:10.1186/s12905-014-0140-7

This article relates to my topic as it recognizes the postnatal depressive disorder in a population of women in Africa, in terms of practice. It suggests that through the economic problems, and poverty problems, many women are facing this. It also suggests many ways this can be treated, mostly through counseling. For my question, it answers how this can be treated, as well as helps me narrow down my search to pregnant women or somewhere around that period of time, before or after. I found it interesting that the environment, physically, that one lives in can cause depressive disorders. I can imagine using this as a source where I can discuss ways how depressive disorder occurs, specifically in postnatal period for a women, also how the environment influences it and how counseling can be beneficial. 

~Article 5
Maddux, R. E., & Johansson, H. (2014). A case of depressive personality disorder: Aligning theory, practice, and clinical research. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment,5(1), 117-124. doi:10.1037/a0031680

This article relates to my topic because it shows how depressive disorder effects the person, who has it, and how they go on with their lives, but this article focuses on depressive personality disorder, which can be somewhat generalized to other depressive disorders I believe. I found it interesting that there is something called depressive personality disorder, I did not ever knew that personality disorder can be associated with depressive disorder. I imagine using this source as a narrowed down perspective, and displaying the quality of life for one with a depressive disorder. 

Anything else interesting happen?
~Nothing interesting happening but I am confused as to which path I should take while trying to narrow down my topic; either pregnant women with depressive disorders, or focus on more detailed and narrow type of depressive disorder, I am still researching and trying to do this.