Statement of the problem: "A study to evaluate the effectiveness of counselling technique regarding the reduction of co morbid depression among patients with medical illness at selected hospitals, Bangalore.”

Background of the study: Depression has been predicted to be the leading cause of disease burden in 2030 by the World Health Organization (WHO). An emerging body of evidence demonstrates that depression and physical disorders are commonly co morbid. This co morbidity is related to a poor quality of life (QoL), worse outcomes of the physical disorders, increased mortality, higher medical costs, greater disability, and a heightened functional impact than when depression or a medical disease is present alone. On the basis of these findings, the co morbidity of depression and a physical disorder has been recognized as an increasingly important clinical and global health issue.

•To assess the pre counseling level of co morbid depression among patients with medical illness.

•To evaluate the effectiveness of counselling by comparing pre and post test level of co morbid depression among patients with medical illness.

•To determine the association between level of co morbid depression with their selected demographic variable among patients with medical illness.

Hypothesis: H1: The mean post counseling level of co morbid depression will be significantly lesser than mean pre counseling level of co morbid depression among patients with medical illness

H2: There will be significant association between levels of co morbid depression with their selected demographic variable among patients with medical illness.

Methods: A Quasi-Experimental one group pre-test and post-test design was adapted in the present study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 40 students. The data was collected using a self-administered knowledge questionnaire and Beck’s depression inventory. Content validity of the self-administered questionnaire and Beck’s depression inventory was obtained from the experts of related specialties. When the reliability of the tool was determined using test–retest reliability (Pearson) formula, it was found to be r =0.93, which means that the tool is highly reliable. Following this, a pilot study was conducted to test the feasibility and the practicality of the study.

On the first day of the data collection for the main study, the participants’ level of co morbid depression was assessed using the tool (Pre-test) following which, the counselling technique was administered. On the seventh day, the participants’ level of co morbid depression was reassessed using the same tool (Post-test)

Results: The Pre-test level of co morbid depression scores were assessed, the mean was found to be 21.63 [34.33%] with a standard deviation of 4.65.

However, the Post-test level of co morbid depression scores showed a mean value of 12.13[19.25%] with a S.D. of 4.43. There was a 9.5[15.08%] decreases in the respondents level of co morbid depression.

Interpretation and Conclusion: The effectiveness of the counseling technique was further tested using inferential statistics using the paired ‘t’ test. At 5% level of significance, a significant difference of 28.283 t-values was found between the Pre-test and the Post-test level of co morbid depression scores of the respondents. Hence the counseling technique was found to be effective regarding the reduction of co morbid depression among patients with medical illness at selected hospitals.