Depression – Second Leading Cause of Disability Worldwide

Amy Taylor November 07, 2013

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Depression is taking a huge toll on public health more than we realise. According to a new study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, it is the most common cause of disability worldwide, next to pain, and therefore must be treated as a global health priority.

The sad thing is that globally, only a small portion of patients receive access to health, the World Health Organisation says. The study compared 200 other diseases and injuries as a cause of disability and found that depression ranked second. Nevertheless, its impact varied in different countries and regions. For instance, rates of major depression were highest in Afghanistan and lowest in Japan. In the UK, depression ranked third in terms of years lived with a disability.

"Depression is a big problem and we definitely need to pay more attention to it than we are now,” lead author Dr Alize Ferrari from the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health told BBC. "There’s still more work to be done in terms of awareness of the disease and also in coming up with successful ways of treating it.” She explained that the burden is different between countries – it tends to be higher in low and middle income countries and lower in high income countries.

In 2011, statistics from the House of Commons revealed that the escalating depression crisis is costing the UK £11bn a year in lost earnings, in demands on the health service and in prescribing drugs to tackle the problem. Their findings also showed that people unable to work because of depression lose £8.97bn of potential earnings per year.

"There’s lots of stigma we know associated with mental health," Dr Ferrari said. "What one person recognises as disabling might be different to another person and might be different across countries as well, there are lots of cultural implications and interpretations that come in place, which makes it all the more important to raise awareness of the size of the problem and also signs and how to detect it."

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Depression: ’Second biggest cause of disability’ in world