{"id":1920,"date":"2013-11-08T16:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/?p=1920"},"modified":"2021-01-13T10:41:33","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T10:41:33","slug":"where-in-the-world-are-people-most-depressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2013\/11\/08\/where-in-the-world-are-people-most-depressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Where in the world are people most depressed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Battersea, well perhaps not \ud83d\ude09
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"PoweredThis article titled “Where in the world are people most depressed?” was written by Mark Rice-Oxley, for theguardian.com on Friday 8th November 2013 15.56 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

For those who think of depression as a byproduct of the vapidity of western materialism, this latest study<\/a> by researchers in Queensland might come as something of a shock. Depression simply isn’t that picky. And when it comes to depressive disorders, parts of north Africa and the Middle East suffer more than North America and western Europe.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, who gathered pre-existing data on clinical diagnoses up to 2010, Algeria, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan fared worse for the cumulative number of years their citizens lived with the disability of depression (YLD). (For the Middle East countries, bear in mind that this relates to data gathered before the Arab spring turned lives upside down). <\/p>\n

Japan fared the best, along with Australia and New Zealand. The researchers caveated their work by acknowledging that data is patchy from some parts of the world. Intriguingly, the UK and US \u2013 countries in which reporting on mental illness and cultural reflections of depression are rapidly multiplying \u2013 appear to be far less badly afflicted than parts of Africa and eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

The second interesting breakdown (no pun intended) of the data concerns age. <\/p>\n

\"YLDs
YLDs by age and sex for major depressive disorder and dysthymia (milder depression) in 1990 and 2010. Click on the image for a full-size graphic<\/span> Photograph: info:doi\/10.1371\/journal.pmed.1001547<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gender graph contains few surprises \u2013 women appear to suffer about twice as much as men, reflecting most major studies into the incidence of depression. But the age analysis shows the extent to which depression is becoming a young person’s affliction. People aged 20 to 24 suffer most, closely followed by the generation immediately senior to them. By the time you get to 50-year-olds, where existential questions might start to press, rates dwindle. Above 60, they ease off quite sharply. There may be comfort in growing old after all.<\/p>\n

So is depression on the rise? Again, you would think so from the proliferation of reporting and analysis about the disease. The researchers say yes and no: depressive illness is the disease with the second heaviest burden on society, with around one in 20 people suffering. But if it is getting worse, they say, it may be down to demographics. <\/p>\n

“Whilst burden increased by 37.5% between 1990 and 2010, this was due to population growth and ageing,” they say. “Contrary to recent literature on the topic, our findings suggest that the epidemiology of both major depressive disorder and dysthymia (milder depression) remained relatively stable over time.”<\/p>\n

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n

Published via the Guardian News Feed<\/a> plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People who think depression is a western malaise might be surprised by the results of a new study<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,71,65,62,63,67,69,70,64,66,68],"class_list":["post-1920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-article","tag-blogposts","tag-datablog","tag-depression","tag-health","tag-health-wellbeing","tag-life-and-style","tag-mark-rice-oxley","tag-mental-health","tag-society","tag-world-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6NRDR-uY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41855,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2016\/05\/18\/mindfulness-therapy-for-mental-health-problems-its-more-useful-than-drugs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1920,"position":0},"title":"Mindfulness therapy for mental health problems? ‘It’s more useful than drugs’","author":"diana Stone","date":"May 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"New research has raised hope for using mindfulness in treating mental ill-health. We asked readers about their experiences and had a mixed response","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Powered by Guardian.co.uk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardianBLACK.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":897,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2010\/09\/19\/stigma-and-discrimination\/","url_meta":{"origin":1920,"position":1},"title":"Stigma and discrimination","author":"diana Stone","date":"September 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Stigma and discrimination Stigma and discrimination can have a huge impact on the lives of people affected by depression and, for many, they are the single biggest barrier to recovery. Stigma is experienced by people affected by depression when negative judgements are made about them based on the condition, usually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bi-polar"","block_context":{"text":"Bi-polar","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/bipolar\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":775,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2010\/04\/15\/depression-and-aggression\/","url_meta":{"origin":1920,"position":2},"title":"Depression and Aggression","author":"diana Stone","date":"April 15, 2010","format":"link","excerpt":"I have \u00a0just googled this and it's very relevant to the way that I feel a lot of the time. http:\/\/johnbokma.com\/mind\/depression-aggression.html Well worth a read.","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87433,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2017\/08\/02\/i-think-i-am-getting-past-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":1920,"position":3},"title":"I think I am getting past it","author":"diana Stone","date":"August 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I think I am getting past it. Recently I feel like I am permanently recovering from flu, aching and tired. Maybe I need a change. I seem to be OK when I am occupied sufficiently so maybe it's a depression thing. I can lift myself out of this feeling and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":179595,"url":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/2025\/12\/22\/christmas-thoughts-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":1920,"position":4},"title":"Christmas Thoughts 2025","author":"diana Stone","date":"December 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Well it's been quite a year with a few ups and downs as usual. My partners been ill but is now on the mend though still feeling some discomfort from a surgical procedure. 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Often its a slightly wary and anxious truce ready to be triggered by some random incident\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Musings"","block_context":{"text":"Musings","link":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/category\/musings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1920\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glass-cage.com\/dianas_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}