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Half the population could suffer depression - study

1/12/2005

As much as half the population could experience at least one episode of serious depression in their lifetime, experts have said.

An editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry considered several studies that have been carried out to try to gauge the extent of serious depression in people around the world.

The experts, led by Professor Gavin Andrews from the University of New South Wales in Australia, said rates had ranged from a lifetime risk of a major depressive episode of 6.7% to as high as 40%.

But having considered the evidence they concluded: "Perhaps depression in the Western world will affect half the population during their lifetime, and have incidence peaks in the young and the very old."

Prof Andrews and his colleagues said that the young and very old were also the most likely to have their depression go unrecognised.

Problematic

And treatment with antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy is problematic in these groups, they added.

The experts noted that in 1990, depression was estimated to be second only to heart disease as a cause of disease burden.

There has also been concern in recent years about the rising number of prescriptions for antidepressants being handed out by doctors.

The researchers questioned whether depression really was now restricted to a minority of people or, like flu, was waiting for most people.

They said the the retrospective studies came to very different conclusions on the lifetime incidence of depression, perhaps as low as 10% of the population.

The researchers said the modelling study and two prospective studies they examined were likely to be more accurate, with a lifetime risk of depression approaching 50%.

They said that psychiatrists and GPs dealing with adolescents and the elderly should take note that these groups were at high risk of depression and of it going undiagnosed.

"Perhaps they have, and it is the rest of us who need to note the frequency of depression and the high incidence at the extremes of life," the experts said.