Statistics & Demographics
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"I was pretty enlightened, if I may use that word, from the beginning. I never made it a secret. I probably bored people overemphasizing the fact that I was suffering from a very severe mental seizure."
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General population
Although depression often goes undetected and untreated, among the general population it is estimated that between two and four percent of people suffer from clinical depression. In hard figures this means that during the course of a year, 17.5 million Americans suffer from clinical depression.
The figures are even higher among specific populations. Five and ten percent of patients under primary care suffer from clinical depression and among hospital inpatients, the chronically ill and confined elderly, the rate ranges from ten to fourteen percent of the population.
While men and women each suffer from depression and experience the same symptoms, women are disproportionately affected by depression, experiencing it at roughly twice the rate of men. During any six month period, approximately 6.6 percent of women and 3.5 percent of men will have a depressive disorder. Men with clinical depression are more than twice as likely to develop coronary artery disease as their non-depressed counterparts.
With regard to seasonal affective disorder - depression that occurs at certain times of the year when there is the least amount of sunlight - four times as many women as men are affected.
Research predicts that more than half of the people who have had one episode of major depression will have another at some point in their lives.
Elderly
Although older adults may experience many losses in later life, changes in health status, or relocation of loved ones, most older people feel "satisfied" with their lives. Depression is not a normal part of aging, but unfortunately, many caregivers and 58% of older adults think it is!
Depression often goes undetected because patients do not report their symptoms, or when they do, they are often misinterpreted as symptoms of a medical illness. Even when depression is recognized, it often goes untreated because older adults are more likely than any other group to try to "handle it themselves". Only 38% of Americans over age 65 believe that depression is a "health" problem.
The current population of older adults came of age at a time when depression was not understood to be a medical illness, but rather a personal weakness. Many older adults resist diagnosis and treatment due to ignorance and fear based upon myths, misinformation, and the stigma related to mental-illness in past decades.
Depressive symptoms occur in approximately 15 percent of community residents over 65 years of age. Rates of depression in nursing homes can be as high as 25%! Chronic illness and prescribed medications may also contribute to the higher level of depression among older adults. Older adults with significant symptoms of depression have roughly 50 percent higher healthcare costs than non-depressed seniors.
Older adults are considered the group most at risk of suicide. The suicide rate in older adults is more than 50% higher than young people or the nation as a whole. Up to two-thirds of older adult suicides are attributed to depression that went untreated or misdiagnosed. White men over age 80 are six times more likely to commit suicide than any other demographic group.
Chronically ill
Many diseases can cause or be associated with depression, among them thyroid conditions, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, hormonal imbalances, multiple sclerosis, and several cancers. Treating the underlying disease usually resolves the depression.
Depression may also go hand-in-hand with chronic illness that does not directly cause it, for example, arthritis, heart disease, or diabetes. Doctors call this "co-morbidity." When this happens, treating the depression often makes it easier for the person to live with the other chronic condition.
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