Study Suggests: France, U.S. Have Highest Depression Rates

According a survey found that More people are being depressed in France and the U.S. than anywhere in the world, more than 89,000 people in 18 different countries.

The World Health Organization, found that 21 percent of people in France and 19.2 percent of people in the U.S. reported having an extended period of depression within their lifetime. According to the study, on average, 15 percent of people in high-income countries compared with 11 percent in low-income countries,

There are a lot of people in the U.S. who say they aren’t satisfied with their lives. According to the Geneva-based WHO, Depression affects nearly 121 million people worldwide and is the second leading contributor to shorter lifespan and poor health for individuals 15-44 years of age.

 Kessler who is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, said, the disease is the third-largest contributor to lowered productivity in the workplace.
Depression Differences

Researchers took into account both clinical depression, a biological condition that leads to low self-esteem and loss of interest in otherwise enjoyable activities, and types of mild depression, which can be situational or caused by environmental influences.

“There’s no change in biological depression, but what’s going up is the more mild depression,” Kessler said. “Objective things haven’t changed. We have an expectation that everything’s going to turn out perfect but it doesn’t.”

Scientists from twenty different institutions worldwide worked with the WHO’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative, obtaining data by interviewing 89,037 people in 18 different countries from 2000 to 2005. Trained interviewers spoke with respondents in person or over the phone about traumatic events in that person’s life, substance abuse, relationships, happiness, and other factors that could influence mental health.

The report also found that women were twice as likely to experience depression, and the strongest link to depression was separation or divorce from a partner.

 Lead researcher Evelyn Bromet, a professor and epidemiologist at Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, New Yorks aid, “Most people that come out of medical school or residencies do not learn about depression, so they don’t know how to recognize it.”