Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Are Depression Studies On The Right Track?

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Are Depression Studies On The Right Track?

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Researchers may be barking up the wrong tree as scientists are looking at entirely different factors that cause depression, claiming that there is evidence to suggest that this condition is caused by life events and circumstances rather than biological or genetic.

This, after psychologists claimed that too much emphasis is being made on genetic profiling and biological testing when it could have been re channeled to put more effort into identifying and studying the real causes of depression if the research community wants to get ahead in their quest to find answers.

Clinical Psychology Professor Peter KInderman from the Liverpool University said that numerous independent studies and researches are one in declaring that the cause of depression are the least studied from social factors that cause it.

In the United Kingdom alone, spending on mental health issues reach a staggering 70 billion British pounds according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The group also claimed that mental health factored in more than 40 percent of 470,000 new disability benefit claims every year and almost half of adults are expected to suffer from a mental health condition at least once in their lives and one in every four are diagnosed with a mental health issue, mostly depression.

Unfortunately, Medical Research Council only spends as much as 3 percent of their budget appropriations for the study of mental health conditions, while it has spent a lot on funding studies on biology and genetics of mental illness with little success to speak of, while not much has been spent for research on social factors.

In the United States, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) reported that more than 14.8 million Americans are affected by major depressive disorder or roughly about 6..7 percent of the country’s population of those aged 18 and older, every year.

Although major depressive problems occur at any time and at any age, the average age based on statistics is 32 and is more likely to occur in women than in men.

Those suffering from depression are more likely to develop heart conditions even heart attack compare to those without any history of the illness and worse, higher risk of death in the event of a second attack.

Globally, depression is the third ranking workplace issues and cost estimates for losses in the US alone amounting to almost $100 billion every year due to lost productivity, absences and medical expenditures.

Image Credit: Depression is ‘triggered by life traumas, NOT genes’: Experts warn too much money is spent on researching biological factors – Daily Mail

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