Is Personal Recovery different than Clinical Recovery in Psychiatric Disorders?

BACKGROUND: Personal recovery is a unique process of changing one’s attitude, value, feelings, goals, skills and/or developing new meaning and purpose in life beyond the limits imposed by one’s illness. As opposed to this, clinical recovery is about relief of psychiatric symptoms as assessed by clinicians. The concept of recovery thus extends beyond removal of all symptoms or restoration of functionality. AIMS: To enquire into and assess the nature of personal recovery as opposed to clinical recovery of patients suffering from psychiatric illnesses. METHODS: Ten patients were assessed using scales for clinical recovery such as Clinical Global Impression (CGI) Scale and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Questionnaire into Process of Recovery (QPR) scale which is a personal recovery measure standardized and widely used in United Kingdom. Responders were asked to elaborate their response with examples in their life and responses were noted down in their verbatim and were qualitatively analyzed. RESULTS: Patients didn’t feel personally recovered not because of their irritability, hearing voices but due to unemployment, stigma from society. Patients did feel personally recovered as they were able to work, get married, as they were accepted even though they have low self-esteem. But in some of them, clinical symptoms were hindrances to the personal recovery. CONCLUSION: Personal recovery in short, can mean that patients are able to live a meaningful life. Personal recovery thus plays a vital role in patients’ life and it differs from clinical symptoms remission.