It is an established fact that depression affects higher percentage of people when compared to two decades ago. It is a silent killer and many affected people are still unaccounted for. Statistics show an astonishing scenario regarding causative factors in population. There is widespread belief and realization that no single, integrated, and comprehensive approach for diagnosis, methodology and treatment is available to scientific evaluation and management.

In America , mental disorders are diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV).

At any given time, it is observed that one in five people in the US has a propensity to get mental disorder. This means that 1/5, i.e., 20% of the entire American population suffers from serious symptoms of mental ailments.

An estimate says that 22.1% of Americans population at the age levels of 18 and above is affected with treatable mental disorder in any given year. If one takes 2003 U.S. Census into consideration, this amounts to 46.4 million people.

In other developed countries and the U.S. , four out of ten top causes of disability are related to mental disorders. These include major depression, neurotic and habitual disorders, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia etc. Over 90 percent of suicide victims have a diagnosable mental disorder.

Approximately 9.5 percent of the U.S. population at age 18 and older in a given year has a depressive disorder. Each year, 6.6 percent of men affected with depressive disorder. The figure almost doubles to 12.0 percent in the case of women. All people are affected regardless of age, demographic characteristics, geographic area, or social status.

About fifty years ago, the average age of onset of depression was 29 years, but now it has reduced to an average of 14.5 years. Depressive disorders often occur along with anxiety disorders and drug dependencies.

The effect of mental illness on health and productivity all over the world is enormous and, to a major extent, is under-estimated. A study conducted by WHO etc., organizations show that about fifteen percent of people of advanced economies suffer from mental related problems.

An NIMH study indicates that about half of American adults suffer from role disability for many days each year and a large part of the disability is associated with mental disorders. The effect of role disability, when reflected in cost terms, is an indirect cost affecting major economies. It becomes difficult to estimate indirect costs such as role disability.

The role disability among adults in America is estimated to average around 32 days per year. Around 1.3 billion disability days are lost due to metal conditions each year. This is a huge burden on those sufferers who have mental conditions, their families and their employers.

Projecting the cost of impact of these disabilities is difficult because people have a tendency to have more than one illness at a time, such as a person may have heart problem also along with mental condition. By taking into consideration the possibility of prevalence of more than one disability, the total disability days due to musculoskeletal disorders are estimated to have reached an astounding 1.2 billion disability days, while major depression accounted for as many as 387 million disability days.

Some Aspects of Depression Statistics

Pre-school going kids are the fastest-growing users of antidepressants. The clinically depressed kids constitute 4 percent.

In children, increase in depressive tendencies is 23%.

Depressed people account for 15% of the population in developed countries.

54% of people believe depression is a personal weakness, i.e., undiagnosed.

41% of depressed women feel too ashamed to seek aid.

80% of depressed people do not get any treatment.

92% of African-American males, who are depressed, do not seek treatment.

15% of people suffering from depressive disorder take their lives.

It is estimated that depression will become the second largest killer by 2020 A.D., after heart disease.

30% of population takes antidepressants .

8.3% of adolescent population suffers from depressive disorders in the U.S.

The rates of increase in mental health problems among children shoot up as they reach adolescence years. Mental disorders affect about 10.4% of boys who are in the age group 5-10, rising to about 12.8% of boys in the age group 11-15; and for girls, it is 5.9% in the age group 5-10, rising to 9.65% of girls in the age group 11-15.