25 Nov Depression Second Leading Cause of Disability Worldwide
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Alize J. Ferrari
University of Queensland
School of Population Health
Herston, Queensland, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: In our paper recently published in PloS Medicine, we report findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 for depression. We found that depression (defined as major depressive disorder and dysthymia) accounted fr 8% of the non fatal burden in 2010, making it the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Burden due to depression increased by 35% between 1990 and 2010, although this increase was entirely driven by population growth and ageing. Burden occurred across the entire lifespan, was higher in females compared to males, and there were differences between world regions.When depression was considered a risk factor for other health outcomes it explained 46% of the burden allocated to suicide and 3% of the burden allocated ischemic heart disease.
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Answer: Depression is a global health priority. It is important to understand the variations in burden between age, sex, place and time as it will help us set health objectives for the disorder.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Answer: More work is required to implement cost-effective interventions for depression in order to reduce its ubiquitous burden.
Citation:
Burden of Depressive Disorders by Country, Sex, Age, and Year: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010
Citation:
Alize J. Ferrari, Fiona J. Charlson, Rosana E. Norman, Scott B. Patten, Greg Freedman, Christopher J.L. Murray, Theo Vos, Harvey A. Whiteford
Published: Nov 05, 2013
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001547
Last Updated on February 2, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD