Depression - Prevalence

Depression and anxiety disorders have a high lifetime prevalence (~16% and ~10%, respectively) and are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. This means that depression is common. Every year, worldwide more than one million people commit suicide, accounting for 1 to 2 per cent of total global mortality. It is the fifth highest cause of years of life lost in the developed world. According to World Health Organization statistics the annual world-wide incidence of completed suicide was 16 per 100,000 persons in 2000. This means that globally 1 per 6000 persons commits suicide every year. The lowest suicide rates are found in Europe, at below 10 per 100,000, such as in Greece, The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. However outside of the European Region suicide mortality has been exceptionally higher, such as in Sri Lanka (above 40 per 100,000) and is also in Japan (over 16 per 100,000). Rates are described as moderate (10 - 16 per 100,000) in China, Canada, Australia, Cuba, New Zealand, Singapore, Mauritius, Uruguay and the United States. Everywhere, the male suicide rate is two to four times higher than the female rate: China is the only exception with a very high female suicide rate.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression will be the second most important medical disorder worldwide by the year 2020. Anxiety and depression are considered to be complex brain traits that result from the interplay of multiple genetic and environmental determinants. Part of these genetic and environmental risk factors are likely to overlap; co-morbidity is high and both disorders share a number of symptoms in common and can be successfully treated with similar (serotonergic) antidepressants.