How Many People Suffer From Depression ?
We live in a very stressful world. Every day, everyone faces a variety of problems. They can be about jobs, family, relationships, health problems or mental illnesses. These kinds of stressors affect people’s lives. Stressful events affect people’s working life, family life, daily functions and they affect their physical –psychological health very intensely. Stress is a source of many mental illnesses. One of these mental illnesses is depression.
Types and Symptoms
Depression is the most common mental disease. Everyone can face it at any age or in any time of their lives. All over the world, more than 350 million people suffer from depression. Teenagers, women, unemployed and people who are alone are in the high risk group. Depression is a mood disorder. There are some types of depression. According to DSM-V, Major Depressive Disorder and Persistent Disorder (dysthyima) are the two depression types. If depression lasts two years or more, it is called Persistent Depressive Disorder. Post Partum Depression happens to some mothers after giving birth to their baby. Mostly we will discuss Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).The cardinal symptoms of depression include profound sadness and/or inability to experience pleasure. In DSM-V criteria for major depressive disorder should include at least five symptoms to diagnose. These could be: sleeping too much or too little, Psycho-motor retardation or agitation, weight loss or change in appetite, loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, difficulty concentrating, thinking or making decisions and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. Symptoms can present nearly every day, most of the day and they should last for at least 2 weeks.
Differences between gender and culture
If we look at gender differences in depression, we can say that, major depression occurs about twice as often in women as in men. Some countries or some cultural life styles affect depression. For example, countries which has economical or political problems may increase the percentage of depression. Some countries, especially on the east side of the world faces with social problems. Common problems are terrorism, war, immigration, lower education level, lower economic level and low health service. Mostly, it causes health problems. People cannot take health services enough. They cannot take treatments. Treatments are very important for mental illnesses. If they cannot get treatment, especially for depression and anxiety problems, it can spread all over the city, country even all over the world. On the other side, western countries face more individual problems such as loneliness, failure or over- competitive lifestyle. Individual cultural countries can suffer from depression because of lack of social support. They have to solve their problem on their own.
Treatment for Depression
Most common methods are anti-depressant medication and psychological counseling. Most of the time, a combination of using both treatment works best on people. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is the most effective treatment. It includes behavioral activation, individual homework, trying to increase physical activity and getting social interactions.
Statistics for Depression :
20% of people with major depressive disorder develop psychotic symptoms.
5% of the World population – 350 million people suffer from depression.
5.1% of women have depression all over the world.
3.6% of men have depression all over the world.
Almost 800.000 people die due to suicide because of depression.
Most effective treatments are behavioral activity and antidepressants
About 10-15% women develop post-partum depression.
