A Semantic Network Analysis of Thai Utterances Used by Depression Patients

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze a semantic network of Thai utterances used by depression patients with individual interviewing 14 female patients aged 20 years and above after triage process of the Psychiatry at Lampang Hospital. The research instruments included questions for the interview and tape recorders.  The results revealed that the semantic network was structured by 4 central categories: self, disease, society, and hope. The “self” category consisted of self-dissatisfaction as its sub-central category which could be divided into 4 subcategories including being bad person, burden of others, one who took other responsibilities and unfortune person. The “disease” category included 3 sub-central categories: uncontrollable things, symptoms, and anchors. The “society” category was composed of 5 sub-central categories: misunderstanding, annoying, gossip, force, and leaving. The “hope” category included 2 sub-central categories: hope for themselves, and hope for the society. From these results, it could reflect the patients’ concepts, viewpoints, and understanding towards themselves, Depression, society, and their hope for understanding from people around them. These categories were connected to one another by cause-effect relation. Therefore, if people around them treated them with understanding, they would have positive attitude towards themselves, the disease, and the society. Then, the patients could feel better and recovery would ensue.