In 20 years, depression will become the disease that humans suffer, beating cancer and cardiovascular disorders, says the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the organization, this mental disorder will be the biggest health problem for society, both economically and socially, however, says the WHO, most developing countries currently spend only less than 2% their national budgets on mental health services.
According to WHO, currently more than 450 million people are directly affected for a mental disorder or disability, and most of them live in developing countries.
"the organization's figures clearly show the magnitude of the problem and its likely to become ever larger," the BBC said Dr. Shekhar Saxena, Mental Health Department of WHO.
"So much so that by 2030 depression will be, of all health disorders, which cause the greatest health burden," he adds.
When speaking of "burden," said the expert, is considered as lost years of life due to early death or severe disability caused by certain disease, which in this case depression.
Silent Epidemic
Dr. Saxena says that depression is more common now that most dreaded diseases like HIV / AIDS or cancer.
And yet, he added, depression is one of those topics that people do not usually talk much, especially when the person is affected.
"We call it the silent epidemic because it often goes unrecognized," says psychiatrist WHO.
"But there has always been present and is likely to increase in terms of proportion while others decrease disease.
This growing health burden will be a particular problem for developing countries with fewer resources to mental health services.
"We have figures showing that the poorest countries actually have more depression compared to rich countries, "says Dr Saxena.
" And even the poor people in rich countries have a higher incidence of depression to the richest people in those countries. "
poorer, more depressed
WHO figures show that high-income countries spend 200 times more resources to mental health than those of low income.
And about half of mental disorders begin before the person reaches 14 years, experts stress the importance of health during childhood.
However, the low and middle income countries have only one child psychiatrist for every 1 to 4 million people.
WHO studies show that about 800,000 people commit suicide each year and 86% of them live in low and middle income countries.
And more than 50% of these people, says the organization, are between 15 and 44.
But losses are not only important in social terms, because mental illness also have a huge impact on the productivity of a country.
British Experts from King's College in London have been calculated in financial terms what is the charge of a person with depression to society.
"Part of this burden is the loss of productivity, because a person with severe depression have little chance of being employed or remain employed," said Professor Martin Prince, an expert in psychiatric epidemiology at King's College London.
"But they also include the costs of disability benefits or unemployment, particularly in developed countries," says the expert.
"These combined costs amount to some U.S. $ 19,000 million per year or about 1% of GDP, which is an unusually large amount," he adds.
With the prospects of increased burden of mental illness and continue to increase in coming years, it is urgent to change the attitude of society towards mental illness.
"Depression is an illness as real as any other physical disorder makes people suffer, "says Dr. Saxena.
" And the person concerned has the right to obtain advice and treatments are right in the same environment health offered to patients with other diseases. "
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