Depression is a mental disorder consisting of a constellation of emotional, physical and cognitive symptoms.1 It is a common mental disorder affecting a large number of patients globally, with a wider impact on their friends, families, carers and employers.2
- Depression affects in excess of 350 million people worldwide, and is estimated to become the leading cause of global disease burden by 20302,3
- The estimated global cost of depression was at least $800 billion in 2010, and this is expected to at least double over the next two decades4
- In Europe alone, depression had a socioeconomic cost of more than €54 billion in 2010 through loss of productivity (presenteeism) and absence from the workplace (absenteeism)5
Depression affects in excess of 350 million people worldwide
- It has been estimated that up to 1 in 5 patients present with clinically significant depressive symptoms in primary care settings6
- There has been a 165% increase in antidepressant prescriptions in England between 1998 and 2012, and an increase of 400% in the USA between 1988 and 20087,8
- Costs of antidepressant prescriptions in 2011 reached £270 million in the UK, and $11 billion in the USA9,10
- People with depression are thought to be 20-40% more likely to be unemployed11
- Patients with depression are 1.6 times more likely to develop heart disease than healthy individuals. That’s greater than the risk posed by passive smoking12
- The risk of suicide in patients with depression is more than 20 times greater than the general population3
Rethinkdepression.com aims to highlight the symptom profile of depression, across emotional, physical and cognitive symptoms, and highlight the importance of cognitive symptoms in particular in the everyday lives of patients with depression. Above all, it aims to encourage you to rethink your approach to depression, and presents cognitive symptoms as an important consideration of depression symptomatology, diagnosis and management.