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Depression And Other Common Mental Disorders Global Health Estimates

Data Availability On Mental Health

Living with generalized anxiety disorder

The majority of data presented in this entry is based on estimates from the IHMEs Global Burden of Disease . This is currently one of the only sources which produces global level estimates across most countries on the prevalence and disease burden of mental health and substance use disorders.

Nonetheless, the GBD acknowledges the clear data gaps which exist on mental health prevalence across the world. Despite being the 5th largest disease burden at a global level , detailed data is often lacking. This is particularly true of lower-income countries. The Global Burden of Disease note that the range of epidemiological studies they draw upon for global and national estimates are unequally distributed across disorders, age groups, countries and epidemiological parameters.46 Using these studies to provide full coverage of these disorders is challenging.

To overcome these methodological challenges the authors note:

Disease Burden Of Mental Health And Substance Use Disorders

Health impacts are often measured in terms of total numbers of deaths, but a focus on mortality means that the burden of mental health disorders can be underestimated.2 Measuring the health impact by mortality alone fails to capture the impact that mental health disorders have on an individuals wellbeing. The disease burden measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Years considers not only the mortality associated with a disorder, but also years lived with disability or health burden. The map shows DALYs as a share of total disease burden mental and substance use disorders account for around 5 percent of global disease burden in 2017, but this reaches up to 10 percent in several countries. These disorders have the highest contribution to overall health burden in Australia, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In 2017, an estimated 264 million people in the world experienced depression. A breakdown of the number of people with depression by world region can be seen here and a country by country view on a world map is here.In all countries the median estimate for the prevalence of depression is higher for women than for men.

DALYs from depression

The chart found here shows the health burden of depression as measured in Disability Adjusted Life Years per 100,000. A time-series perspective on DALYs by age is here.

How To Measure Depression In Low

Depression is one of the most disabling and costly illnesses worldwide. Globally, the total number of people with depression is estimated to exceed 280 million . Depression is associated with poor health and economic outcomes such as substance use disorders, HIV, educational impairments, and poverty . It is also a major risk factor for suicide, the cause of death of around 800,000 people every year .

Depression is underdiagnosed and undertreated around the world. This is particularly the case in low-income countries, where data on the prevalence of depression as well as the resources to address it are scarce .

Measuring depression in these settings is an essential starting point to understand the magnitude of the problem, develop treatment programmes, monitor progress, and inform policy. In this post, we discuss how depression is defined and which tools exist to measure it. We conclude with some best practices to follow when using these tools in research studies conducted in low-resource settings.

Depressive disorders are characterized by a combination of symptoms that affect the way that people feel, think, and behave. Depressive disorders include two main sub-categories :

There are two main classification systems for guiding the diagnosis of depression:

Table 1. Key symptoms of depressive disorders

Core symptoms
Change in appetite and weight

The appendix below includes the specific scales , as well as additional information about scoring and copyright.

Recommended Reading: How To Know If You Are Diagnosed With Depression

Study Selection And Data Screening

We included observational studies that reported the occurrence or provided sufficient data to estimate the prevalence of mental health problems among the general population, and used validated measurement tools for mental health assessment. The pre-specified protocol was amended to permit the inclusion of studies the recruited participants aged 12 years or older and college students as many colleges and universities were closed due to national lockdowns. We excluded studies that were case series/case reports, reviews, or studies with small sample sizes included participants who had currently confirmed with the COVID-19 infection and surveyed individuals under hospital-based settings. If studies had overlapping participants and survey periods, then the study with the most detailed and relevant information was used.

Eligible titles and abstracts of articles identified by the literature search were screened independently by two reviewers . Then, potentially relevant full-text articles were assessed against the selection criteria for the final set of included studies. Potentially eligible articles that were not written in English were translated before the full-text appraisal. Any disagreement was resolved by discussion.

Treatment And Medication Guides

Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders

If youve been diagnosed with one of the following mental health conditions, you can use these guides to better understand the treatment options available to you and compare commonly prescribed medication. However, the only one who can determine the best treatment for you is your healthcare provider.

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Sharing Mental Health Stories

The World Health Organization reports that depressive disorders are a leading cause of global disease burdenthats over 322 million people struggling to cope with normal life activities every day.1 Mental health, as opposed to other health conditions, has distinctive challenges because of the stigma and taboos surrounding how people feel about their own or others diagnosis and treatment. Not wanting to acknowledge or discuss mental health has led to delays in seeking care, dismissal of symptoms, and the inability to offer appropriate support to those in need. However, the movement towards social acceptability is growing as health campaigns continue to spread awareness and disperse fears.

Thanks to the Internet, more people than ever can share their personal stories about mental illness, bringing these conditions to light and helping them feel less alone. For example, Mind, a United Kingdom nonprofit organization dedicated to mental health support, hosts letters on their website written by people affected by mental health conditions. One contributor describes the effect of depression:

Depression it just eats you up from the inside out. Its like a monster inside your head that takes over. The worst thing is to know that my family and friends were doing all they could, yet I still felt so lonely.

Read more about evidence-based recommendations on the diagnosis and treatment of depressive disorders on MDGuidelines.com.

Depression Rates By Country 2021

Depression, also known as major depressive disorder, is a mental health disorder that negatively affects how a person feels, thinks, and acts. The Global Health Data Exchange estimates that 251-310 million people worldwide suffer from depression. While depression is common, it is also, fortunately, treatable.

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Mental Disorders Global Health Estimates

Public health is the study of the morbidity, mortality and the cause and course of disease, at a population rather than an individual level. Public health is also concerned with examining factors that cause health inequalities.

Globally, depression has been identified as the leading cause of poor health and disability, with more than 300 million people living with the mental disorder. Owing to the alarming estimates and its ever-growing incidence, it is high time that stakeholders from different nations should re-visit their earlier strategies to improve the mental well being of the general population and give due attention to improve the existing scenario. In-fact, the World Health Organisation has started a campaign to cover people with depression across the world so that they not only seek,but even receive the required help. To conclude, failure to immediately act will prove costly for the stakeholders.

Thus, there is an extensive need to deliver proper care and psycho-social support to all the people with mental disorders, and improve the quality of life of millions of people.

As a result The World Health Organisation has produced a booklet entitledDepression and Other Common Mental Disorders – Global Health Estimates.

Reliable, up-to-date estimates of the proportion of a general population affected by different diseases or health conditions is a key ingredient of effective health policy, planning and evaluation.

To read the full booklet please click on:-

Risk Factors For Mental Health

Top 3 Most common Psychological disorders explained

The determinants, onset and severity of mental health disorders are complex they can rarely be attributed to a single factor. Identifying potential risk factors form an important element of health research, potential prevention and in some cases, appropriate treatment nonetheless, many risk factors remain only correlates of observed patterns in mental health. They therefore need to be interpreted carefully.

The World Health Organization synthesize the potential contributors to mental health and wellbeing into three categories:29

  • individual attributes and behaviours: these can be particular genetic factors or personality traits
  • social and economic circumstances
  • environmental factors.

In the table we see the WHOs breakdown of potential adverse and protective factors for mental health within these three categories. These factors often interact, compound or negate one another and should therefore not be considered as individual traits or exposures. For example, particular individual traits may make a given person more vulnerable to mental health disorders with the onset of a particular economic or social scenario the instance of one does not necessarily result in a mental health disorder, but combined there is a significantly higher vulnerability.

Level
Exposure to war or disaster Physical security & safety

Risk factors through the life-course

Pre-conception and pre-natal period

Infancy and early childhood

Childhood

Adolescence

Adulthood

Older age

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How Is Prevalence Defined And Measured

The widespread issue of underreporting means accurate and representative data on the prevalence of disorders is difficult to define. If relying on mental health diagnoses alone, this underestimation would be severe. Prevalence figures would be likely to reflect healthcare spending rather than giving a representative perspective on differences between countries high-income countries would likely show significantly higher prevalence as a result of more diagnoses.

The data presented in this entry by the Institute of Health Metrics & Evaluation is therefore based on a combination of sources, including medical and national records, epidemiological data, in addition to survey data. Where raw data for a particular country is scarce, epidemiological data and meta-regression models must be used based on available data from neighbouring countries. Data quality issues are described below.

The data presented here therefore offers an estimate of mental health prevalence based on medical, epidemiological data, surveys and meta-regression modelling.

Interpreting Data On Depression

While the numbers listed above are valuable and vital, it is important to keep in mind that the true rates are likely much higher, especially in less developed countries. Depression is much more likely to be diagnosed in highly developed countries, whose more robust health care infrastructures are far better equipped to identify and treat mental illnesses.

Therefore, less developed countries do not necessarily have less depressionrather, their treatment of mental illnesses often takes a back seat to broader concerns such as hunger, disease, and sanitation. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that 7685% of people suffering from mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries lack access to the necessary treatment. Moreover, even in developed nations, many cases of mental illness go undiagnosed and unreported because the patients are either ashamed of their illness or unaware that it’s a medically treatable condition.

Depression rates are rising around the world, but it’s likely that this rise is due at least in part to a good thing: More patients than ever before are seeking and receiving treatment for mental illness rather than going undiagnosed. In many countries, including the United States, the stigma surrounding mental illnesses is gradually decreasing. This enables a more open discussion of mental illness and makes people more likely to seek help when they need it.

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Global Prevalence Of Mental Health Issues Among The General Population Amid The Covid

Table âTable22 presents a summary of the results of the prevalence of mental health problems among the general population amid the COVID-19 pandemic by WHO region and World Bank country groups. With substantial heterogeneity, the global prevalence was 28.0% for depression 26.9% for anxiety 24.1% for PTSS 36.5% for stress 50.0% for psychological distress and 27.6% for sleep problems . The prevalence of mental health problems based on different countries varied , from 14.5% to 63.3% for depressive symptoms from 7.7% to 49.9% for anxiety from 10.5% to 52.0% for PTSS from 19.7% to 72.8% for stress from 23.9% to Jordan for psychological distress from 9.2% to 53.9% for sleep problems.

Subgroup Analyses And Meta

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Subgroup analyses on EMR countries, population type, regime type, screening method , and country’s income group revealed possible reasons for the heterogeneity observed. The prevalence of OCD, panic disorders, phobic disorders and substance use varied significantly across EMR countries. Additionally, populations exposed to adversity had a higher prevalence than the general population. However, this difference was only significant for phobic disorders and marginally significant for PTSD. Higher rates of depressive disorders, GAD, PTSD, phobic disorders and psychosis were observed in low-income countries, with evidence of a difference in the prevalence of PTSD and phobic disorders across income groups.

Additionally, individuals in hybrid regimes were found to be significantly more likely to show phobic and panic disorders, as well as substance use. Substance use was also found to be significantly higher in high-income countries. Finally, studies that used screening tools reported a consistently higher prevalence of mental disorders than studies that used diagnostic interviews. Significantly higher rates were reported for depressive disorders and substance use and marginally significantly higher rates for GAD.

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Life Satisfaction And Mental Health

Is the prevalence of mental health disorders reflected in self-reported life satisfaction or happiness? Overall, evidence suggests that there is a negative correlation between prevalence of particular mental health disorders and self-reported life satisfaction. This suggests that life satisfaction and happiness tends to be lower in individuals experiencing particular mental health disorders.

We discuss the link and evidence for this relationship in our entry on Happiness and Life Satisfaction.

What Are The Challenges Of Measuring Depression

Content validity: We might want to know whether the questionnaires were measuring depression at all. How would we be sure of this?

We could first think about which emotions and behaviors we associate with depression sadness, tiredness, guilt, a loss of energy, and so on and we could make sure that the questionnaires ask about all of these emotions.

Criterion validity: We could also find out if peoples responses to the questions are correlated with other things we associate with depression.

For example, if someone is severely depressed, we might expect that they are also less sociable and that they perform poorly at work or school. We could test whether this is the case for people who scored high on a questionnaire for depression.

Discriminant validity: We could also test whether their responses are uncorrelated with things we dont associate with depression, such as their height or intelligence.

Internal consistency: Another important thing wed want to know is whether the questions were actually tapping into the same phenomenon.

Do all the questions measure depression or are some measuring other concepts instead? To test for this, we could look at how closely peoples answers to different questions align with each other.

One consequence of this focus is that scores shouldnt also measure other concepts.

Fortunately, there are straightforward ways to test this: we could measure how consistent different doctors were at diagnosing the same patients.

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Factors Related To Depression

Compared to prevalence studies, few studies have evaluated the factors associated with the development of depression in children and adolescents. Most of the studies which have reported factors associated with depression have been clinic-based or school-based and have evaluated life events, demographic factors, or clinical factors associated with the development of depression. These factors can be categorized as those related to studies or education, relationship issues in the familial context, familial issues, economic difficulties, and other factors . A study which evaluated the factors associated with the development of depression in the descriptive analysis and then confirmed the same using binary logistic regression analysis identified being in class tenth and lack of self-satisfaction with academics as the most important predictors of depression in children and adolescents.

New Who Prevalence Estimates Of Mental Disorders In Conflict Settings: A Systematic Review And Meta

Mental health illnesses are some of the most common in the US
  • Policy and Epidemiology Group, Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, QLD, AustraliaSchool of Public Health, University of Queensland, QLD, AustraliaInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  • Policy and Epidemiology Group, Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, QLD, AustraliaSchool of Public Health, University of Queensland, QLD, AustraliaInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

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Subgroup Analyses Sensitivity Analyses Meta

In the subgroup analyses , the prevalence of mental health problems was higher in countries with a low to medium HDI , high HDI , high gender inequality index , very stringent government response index , less stringent government response index , low to medium hospital beds per 10,000 people , low to medium current health expenditure , estimated percent change of real GDP growth 2020 below â3.0 , low resilience of business environment , medium resilience of business environment , high economic vulnerability-inbound tourism expenditure , article type-short communication/letter/correspondence , cross-sectional survey , longitudinal survey , non-mainland China , sample size of less than 1000 , sample size of more than 5000 , proportion of females more than 60% , and measurement tools . However, several pre-planned subgroup analyses based on participant characteristics and secondary outcomes reported could not be performed due to limited data in the included studies.

Findings from the sensitivity analysis were almost identical to the main analysis . The pooled prevalence by restricting the analysis to studies with a low risk of bias was 28.6% for depression, 27.4% for anxiety, 30.2% for PTSS, 40.1% for stress, 45.4% for psychological distress, and 27.7% for sleep problems.

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