Depression is 'over-diagnosed', page 1

Originally posted by grover
In the famous words of Patrick Henry... "Give me librium or give me meth."

Seriously, though, here's some info from WHO:

# Mental, neurological and behavioural disorders are common to all countries and cause immense suffering. People with these disorders are often subjected to social isolation, poor quality of life and increased mortality. These disorders are the cause of staggering economic and social costs.
# Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are affected by mental, behavioural, neurological and substance use disorders. For example, estimates made by WHO in 2002 showed that 154 million people globally suffer from depression and 25 million people from schizophrenia; 91 million people are affected by alcohol use disorders and 15 million by drug use disorders. A recently published WHO report shows that 50 million people suffer from epilepsy and 24 million from Alzheimer and other dementias.
# In addition to the above figures, many other disorders affect the nervous system or produce neurological sequelae. Projections based on a WHO study show that worldwide in 2005, 326 million people suffer from migraine; 61 million from cerebrovascular diseases; 18 million from neuroinfections or neurological sequelae of infections. Number of people with neurological sequelae of nutritional disorders and neuropathies (352 million) and neurological sequelae secondary to injuries (170 million) also add substantially to the above burden.
# About 877,000 people die by suicide every year.
# One in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated. here

Depression may be only one form of mental illness, but it's probably the most common.

Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy and poor concentration. These problems can become chronic or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual’s ability to cope with daily life. At its most severe, depression can lead to suicide. Most cases of depression can be treated with medication or psychotherapy.
here

and some more:

Facts

* Depression is common, affecting about 121 million people worldwide.
* Depression is among the leading causes of disability worldwide.
* Depression can be reliably diagnosed and treated in primary care.
* Fewer than 25 % of those affected have access to effective treatments.

Depression can be reliably diagnosed in primary care. Antidepressant medications and brief, structured forms of psychotherapy are effective for 60-80 % of those affected and can be delivered in primary care. However, fewer than 25 % of those affected (in some countries fewer than 10 %) receive such treatments. Barriers to effective care include the lack of resources, lack of trained providers, and the social stigma associated with mental disorders including depression.

Primary care based quality improvement programs for depression have been shown to improve the

* quality of care,
* satisfaction with care
* health outcomes,
* functioning,
* economic productivity,
* and household wealth at a reasonable cost
here

It seems there's a lot more to depression than just a disappointed person and a handful of pills.

It's estimated that between 1/4 and 1/3 of the population will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives.

That's a lot.

So I'd say that detection is better than it used to be - although it's always worth getting a 2nd opinion......

"mad? what d'you mean I'm mad? who are you to tell me I'm mad, it's not like I don't know"

"Oh, thanks doc - I'm not mad after all"

So I don't have to take these pills...