Depression Hits One in Six Americans

June 17, 2003
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sixteen percent of Americans -- more than 30 million people -- will suffer major depression at some point in their lives, costing employers more than $30 billion in lost productivity, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

"Major depression is now the No. 1 leading cause of disability in the general population across the world," Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institute of Mental Health told a news conference.

The survey she reported, of more than 9,000 adults across 48 states, suggested that about 13 million Americans, or more than 6 percent, had an episode of major depression in the past year.

Only about half get any kind of treatment, and only half of those get the right treatment, the survey found.

"The impact that we found in our survey is absolutely dramatic. It affects jobs, marriage, parenting," Merikangas said.

Half the patients suffered severe depression, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association, and it lasted an average of four months.

Her team's study was one of several published in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. They found that patients and doctors alike were failing to recognize depression.

"Many people don't know that they can get help," Merikangas said. Both drugs and counseling have been shown to help depression.

A DISEASE OF YOUNG ADULTS

Depression becomes less common as people get older and perhaps adjust to their lot in life, the survey found. "It appears that major depression is more common in young adults," Merikangas said.

"We found increased rates of depression as well among those who are poor and less-educated," Merikangas added. The numbers may be even higher, she said, as the survey did not include homeless people or those in institutions.

Women, in particular, were vulnerable to depression. "Women who have children, women who are poor, and women who have little social and financial support," she said.

The symptoms of depression range from feelings of hopelessness and loss of appetite to trouble sleeping. "People with depression feel like they are in a black hole from which they can't escape," Merikangas said.

Depression is the leading cause of suicide.

A separate survey by Walter Stewart and colleagues at the AdvancePCS Center for Work and Health in Hunt Valley, Maryland, found the costs of depression affected more than just the patients and their families.

Stewart, now at the Outcomes Research Institute at Geisinger Health Systems in Danville, Pennsylvania, interviewed 1,190 working adults and found that 9.4 percent of all workers currently have some form of depression.

They lose, on average, 5.6 hours of work each week, as compared to 1.5 lost hours due to illnesses among non-depressed workers.

"While depression is not the most common illness among working populations, it is probably the most costly," Stewart said.

"Most of the lost work time -- 81 percent -- occurs while employees are at work, and is invisible to employers," added Stewart, who said employees filled out diaries while at work to log their productivity.

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