Clinical Psychologist Dr Abbie Stark led the development of the Overcoming Depression & Low Mood self-help programme, in association with the PHA UK.
“Depression can be characterised by persistent low mood, negative thoughts, loss of interest or pleasure in doing things, problems with sleep, feeling tired or having little energy, change in eating habits and difficulties concentrating.
It can be a very common difficulty that people experience living with pulmonary hypertension. A research study published in 2022 involving over 2100 adults with pulmonary hypertension around the world reported that about one in four people were experiencing depression. This figure is much higher than what we would expect to see in the general public.
This programme has been developed to help people with pulmonary hypertension manage experiences related to depression. It consists of four weekly booklets that have been designed for people to use in the comfort of their own home. The strategies in this book are based on a type of therapy called cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT, which has been found to be helpful for depression in a range of studies. We have worked closely with PHA UK and a small group of people with pulmonary hypertension to make sure the programme considers the unique challenges that people with pulmonary hypertension may face and how this might interact with depression.
I would like to thank the PHA UK for their support with this project. Their passion, commitment and skill helped to make this possible. Thank you to the people with pulmonary hypertension who shared their experiences with us and reviewed earlier versions of the programme to help improve it. Also, a huge thank you to those who took part in the study where we explored whether the programme was helpful for depression in people with pulmonary hypertension.
I am so pleased that this programme is being made available to all service users of PHA UK; I really hope that more people benefit from it.
There is also a similar self-help programme that has been developed for anxiety – which can be accessed here. I hope that having these two programmes available will be a useful resource.”
