Over 5 Crore People Suffer From Depression in India: WHO

According to the latest World Health Organisation Study, more than 5 crore Indians suffered from depression in 2015. WHO has indicated that the declining mental health has been a major cause global suicides especially in the low and middle-income countries. As per the new global estimates of the WHO, while 5 crore people suffered depression in India in 2015, over 3 crore dealt with anxiety disorders.

All these findings were published in WHO’s report titled, “Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders – Global Health Estimates”. It also points out that over 2-3 thirds of the total number of suicides in the world occur in low and middle income countries. As far as global numbers are concerned, more than 322 million people are living with depression around the world and the numbers being the South East Asian and Pacific region.

Depression is a brain disorder that severely impacts your mood and day to day life. Sleep changes, appetite loss, extreme mood swings are some of the common symptoms of depression. Remember that depression is more than just feeling low and sad. It can often lead to serious hopelessness or anger. According to science, a lot of this also has to do with certain chemicals your brain releases when you're stressed or anxious.

The study highlights the fact that depression has increased by 18.4 per cent between 2005 and 2015. The total cases of depressive disorders in 2015 in India were 5,66,75,969 which was 4.5 per cent of population in 2015 while total cases of anxiety disorders were 3,84,250,93 which was 3 per cent of the population in the same year period. For depressive disorders, WHO said total Years Lived with Disability (YLD) in India was 1,00,504,11 which was 7.1 per cent of total YLD, for anxiety disorders, total years for YLD was 35,19,527 which was 2.5 per cent of total YLD.

Unfortunately, suicide was the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally in 2015. The suicide rate varies by WHO Region and by sex, ranging from below 5 per 100,000 population among females in low- and middle-income countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and American Regions to 20 or more among males in high-income countries and also in the low- and middle-income countries of the African, European and South-East Asian Regions.

Source: NDTV