Psychological recovery and its correlates in adults seeking outpatient psychiatric services: An exploratory study from an Indian tertiary care setting.

The study was designed to explore psychological recovery and its correlates in adults receiving outpatient mental health services for psychiatric disorders. It specifically aimed at examining the association of psychological recovery with symptomatic and functional recovery and with selected illness and treatment variables. The relationship of psychological recovery with perceived social support was also the focus of inquiry. The study utilized a cross sectional survey design with a sample of 90 participants diagnosed with severe and common mental illness who had been seeking outpatient psychiatric follow up services. The data was collected with the help of both clinician rated and self-rated measures. The study findings suggested that symptomatic, functional and psychological recovery are significantly correlated but not completely overlapping constructs. Nearly 40% of the sampled participants were at the lower stages of psychological recovery, despite the fact that a majority of them were rated by clinicians as having mild or lower severity of symptoms. With respect to socio-demographic variables, a significant association was found between higher levels of education and psychological recovery. The participants with common mental illness were significantly lower on self-reported improvement and higher on moratorium subscale of psychological recovery (as compared to those with severe mental illness), indicating their struggle in dealing with a sense of loss and despair. Findings also suggested that higher levels of overall perceived social support is likely to facilitate psychological recovery.