people of all ages suffer from depression. It is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease.

◦More women are affected by depression than men.

◦It can lead to suicide.
• There are effective psychological and pharmacological treatments for moderate and severe depression.
◦Recurrent depressive disorder: 2 week period mild moderate severe Cannot carry on with usual activities.
◦Bipolar affective disorder: this type of depression typically consists of both manic and depressive episodes separated by
periods of normal mood.

The Stuart Stress Adaptation Model of Psychiatric Nursing Care

• is a model of psychiatric nursing care.
• which integrates aspects of patient care into a unified framework for practice.
◦biological
◦psychological
◦socio-cultural
◦environmental
◦legal-ethical
• Developed by Gail Stuart as a synthesis of diverse bodies of knowledge from the perspective of psychiatric nursing and as an
application of this knowledge to clinical practice

Importance of using a conceptual model

• provide a structure for thinking, observing, and interpreting what is seen.
• are frames of reference within which patients, their environment and health states, and nursing activities are described.
• Nursing models can explain a person’s response to stress and the process and desired outcomes of nursing interventions
• Psychiatric nurses enhance their practice by basing their actions on a model of psychiatric nursing care that is:
◦Inclusive
◦Holistic
◦Relevant to the needs of it, families, groups and communities

Assumption of the Model

• Nature is ordered as a social hierarchy from the simplest unit to the most complex
◦Each level of this hierarchy is an organized whole.
◦Each level is also is a part of all of the other levels, so nothing exists in isolation.
◦Thus the individual is a part of the family, group, community, society, & the larger
biosphere.
◦Material and information flow across levels, and each level is influenced by all the others.
◦The most basic level of nursing intervention is the individual. However, in working with the
individual, the nurse also must consider how the individual relates to the whole.

• Nursing care is provided within a biological, psychological, sociocultural, legal, ethical, policy
and advocacy context.
◦Each of these aspects of care is described in detail in Chapters 5 through 9.
◦The nurse must understand each of them in order to provide competent, holistic
psychiatric nursing care.
◦The theoretical basis for psychiatric nursing practice is derived from nursing science as
well as from the behavioral, social, and biological sciences.
◦The range of theories used by psychiatric nurses includes:
‣ nursing, developmental psychology, neurobiology, pharmacology, psychopathology,
learning, sociocultural, cognitive, behavioral, economic, organizational, political, legal,
ethical, interpersonal, group, family, and milieu.