Surviving depressive ill-health: a qualitative systematic review of older persons' narratives.

The aim of this qualitative systematic review was to report a comprehensive literature synthesis of older persons' narratives about what they need in order to survive when suffering from depression. Their survival strategies seem to be a state rarely outlined in the literature. A systematic search of EBSCOhost/Academic Search Premier, ProQuest and PubMed was conducted for the period January 2000 to April 2012. Data were analyzed by means of thematic analysis. Thirteen studies were selected and three themes emerged from synthesis: the need for courage, strength, and self-reliance; the meaning of responsibility; and wearing a mask of normalcy to hide the shame. The first comprised two subthemes: the value of faith and distraction and activity; the second had no subtheme; and the third had one subtheme: reaching out of loneliness towards aloneness and connectivity. Further research should be focused on how community projects can improve health services such as enhancing the safety of health care and disseminating health information.