Top 15 depression statistics

Several statistics related to depression, its symptoms and the people who develop it.

Depression is a disorder that has been associated with high comorbidity with other psychological disorders, in addition to health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

It is considered the main reason why people commit suicide and, despite great advances against stigmatization, many myths about depressive disorders are still believed to this day.

Below we will look at several statistics about depression that show how serious the problem is, the importance of following a treatment and the need to inform the population about its consequences at health, work, family and economic levels.

15 statistics on depression

Depression is a very common mental disorder, which has been associated with a high comorbidity with other disorders, especially anxiety disorders, in addition to various medical illnesses.

Here you will find a few facts, accompanied by their percentages, figures and sources, which expose the statistics on depression and its follow-up in the last 10 years.

1. Number of people with depression

As we have already mentioned, depression is a very common mental disorder. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 300 million people could be diagnosed with a depressive disorder. However, there are statistics that are even more pessimistic, indicating that this figure would already reach about 350 million people.

To better understand these figures, 350 million people with depression would be equivalent to the current population of Spain multiplied by seven. The percentage of people who suffer from it during their lifetime would be between 8% and 15%.

2. Depression and suicide

Although not all people who commit suicide are people with a mood disorder, it should be noted that a significant percentage of them do commit suicide because they do not see an end to their suffering.

About 800,000 people end their lives each year, making it the second leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29.

Given Given the high risk of suicide in the population with depressive disorders, it is of utmost importance to understand how suicide occurs.Given the high risk of suicide in the population with depressive disorders, it is of utmost importance to understand how the disorder originates and to make psychological and pharmacological treatments more sophisticated.

In the case of Spain, the risk of suicide is 21 times higher in the depressed population compared to the general population.. The suicide rate in Spain is 7 per 100,000 inhabitants, which means 10 deaths every day.

3. Percentage of people who receive treatment

Despite the fact that effective treatments exist and require few technical resources to implement, more than half of the population affected by depression worldwide receives no treatment at all, more than half of the population affected by depression worldwide does not receive any treatment..

The percentages vary from country to country, but in countries that are still developing or have recently experienced war, the percentage of depressed people receiving no treatment can be as high as 90%.

4. Depression in Europe

Throughout the old continent there are countries with high cases of depression. The ranking places Germany as the country with the most cases, with more than 4 million, followed by Italy and France, with more than 3 million each, and, in fourth place, Spain, with more than 2 million.

To better understand how many depressed people there are in SpainTo better understand the number of depressed people in Spain, it is enough to imagine the entire population of Castilla y León (2.5 million) depressed.

5. Percentages by gender

In all European countries, and in line with the global trend, there are more cases of depressed women, there are more cases of depressed women (5.1% of all women) than depressed men (3.6% of all men). (5.1% of all women) than depressed men (3.6% of all men). In the case of Spain, depression affects 9.2% of women, while in men it affects 4%.

In Spain, the risk of the general population developing a major depressive episode once in their lives is, as expected, twice as high in women (16.5%) as in men (8.9%).

6. Risk of having depression once in a lifetime

Factors such as being younger than 29 or older than 55, poverty, unemployment or addictions to recreational drugs, tobacco or alcohol increase the risk of having depression once in a lifetime. addictions to recreational drugs, tobacco or alcohol increase the percentages. The prevalence of depression is twice as high in people who are unemployed (9.2) compared to those who are working (3.1%).

7. Depression in children

In the child population worldwide, the WHO estimates that 2% of children between 6 and 12 years of age suffer from depression. The percentage increases between 12 and 14 years of age, ranging between 4% and 6%.

8. Consumption of drugs

The statistics regarding the consumption of drugs in Spain are as follows: about 10.7% of the population consumes tranquilizers, relaxants or sleeping pills (13.9% in women and 7.4% of men), 4.8% antidepressants (6.7% of women and 2.7% of men).

9. Seeking professional help

5.4% of the Spanish population indicated having visited a mental health professional, whether psychologist or psychiatrist, at least once during the last year (6.1% of women and 4.6% of men).

10. Economic impact

According to data from the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the depression costs member countries up to 4% of GDP. Although this is a decade old figure, it was estimated that depression in 2010 cost the European Union 92 billion euros.

It has been linked to the loss of productivity caused by absenteeism and presenteeism has been linked to around around 50% of all costs related in one way or another to depression.

11. Treatment abandonment

It is worrying to see that about half of the patients, 43%, drop out of treatment..

It is known that a large number of patients who continue treatment do not adhere to it, especially in the case of psychopharmacological treatment. This is because some antidepressants take several weeks to take effect, and patients want short-term results.

12. Disability, health problems and hospitalization

In Spain, depression causes a complete functional disability of 47 days per year on average.a partial functional disability of 60 days per year.

Depression has been associated with a risk factor in physical diseases, especially those related to the heart or metabolic problems such as diabetes. In Europe, depression accounts for more than 7% of premature mortality.

The inverse relationship has also been investigated, finding that about 21.5% (16.3% in men and 31.8% in women) of patients who are hospitalized may present depressive symptomatology. Nearly 20% of patients seen in Spanish primary care have depressive disorders..

13. Improvement with antidepressants

According to research by Furukawa's group (2016), about 54% of adults with depression who are treated with Antidepressant drugs notice an improvement of about 50% of their symptoms.. Interestingly, between 30 and 40% of adults prescribed a placebo drug also saw a 50% reduction in their symptoms.

14. Improvement with psychotherapy

62% of adults show improvement after attending psychotherapy, the percentage being 66% in adults.The percentage is 66% in those who have gone to a psychotherapist who has applied a cognitive-behavioral treatment, according to research by Cuijpers et al (2014).

In the case of the child population, the improvement is 33%.

15. Relapses

Regarding the chances that a person who has suffered a depressive episode will relapse again during his or her lifetime, the statistics vary significantly.

In general terms, the occurrence of a depressive episode has been related to a higher probability of a relapse in the short or long term. Nearly 60% of patients who have suffered a depressive episode have at least one new one during their lifetime..

However, according to research conducted by Monroe's group in 2012, about 50% of the population who have experienced depression will only experience that particular depression.

However, another research (Richards, 2011) shows the following data: between 25-40% of patients who recover after treatment will have another depressive episode during the following 2 years, 60% of them after 5 years and 85% after 15 years

Bibliographic references:

• Fernández, Fernando & Martínez, África & Martín, Ana & Pérez-Fuentes, María & Molero Jurado, María Del Mar & Gázquez Linares, José. (2015). Prevalencia de la depresión en España: Análisis de los últimos 15 años. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education. 5. 10.1989/ejihpe.v5i2.118.
• Cuijpers, P., Stringaris, A. y Wolpert, M. (2020). Treatment outcomes for depression: challenges and opportunities. The Lancet, 1-2.
• Furukawa TA, Cipriani A, Atkinson LZ, et al. (2016) Placebo response rates in antidepressant trials: a systematic review of published and unpublished double-blind randomised controlled studies. Lancet Psychiatry; 3: 1059–66.
• Cuijpers P, Karyotaki E, Weitz E, Andersson G, Hollon SD, van Straten A. (2014) The effects of psychotherapies for major depression in adults on remission, recovery and improvement: a meta-analysis. J Affect Disord; 159: 118–26.
• Bear HA, Edbrooke-Childs J, Norton S, Krause KR, Wolpert M. (2019) Systematic review and meta-analysis: outcomes of routine specialist mental health care for young people with depression and/or anxiety. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2019; published online Dec 24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac..12.002.
• Monroe SM, Harkness KL. (2012) Is depression a chronic mental illness? Psychol Med; 42: 899–902.
• Organización Mundial de la Salud. (30 de enero de 2020). Depresión. Recuperado de: https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression