More People Are Depressed Than Ever Before
And treatment methods are falling behind, new research says.
Depression is society’s silent killer; only getting worse as time goes on.
Given how the dialogue around mental health has changed — for the better — over the preceding two decades, one would expect matters to be improving.
Depression affects approximately 300–400 million people worldwide; around 3.8% — 5% of the total population, depending on your source. Shockingly, 700,000 of these people will die by suicide every year; the fourth leading cause of death amongst 15–29-year-olds, the World Health Organization reports.
Many leaps and bounds are being made by researchers attempting to understand the effects of depression on a neurological, physical and even spiritual level. But for those who have experienced it — depression is like torture; an arduously slow burn, like a red-hot tattoo needle, infecting its way into every aspect of your life.
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical and Scientific American recently reported that one of the biggest flaws in modern depression treatment is the lack of nuance built into the diagnosis framework.
“It’s great that our treatments work as well as they do for these very different kinds of people,” Conor Liston, a…
