Psychiatric Bulletin (2009) 33: 407-408. doi: 10.1192/pb.bp.108.023226
© 2009 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
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Untreated depression in the community

Gavin Andrews, Professor

299 Forbes Street, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010 Australia, email: gavina{at}unsw.edu.au

Nickolai Titov, Senior Lecturer and Genevieve Schwencke, Scientific staff

Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Declaration of interest

None.

AIMS AND METHOD

Reaching into the community to treat people with anxiety and depressive disorders raises the spectre of wrongful use of scarce resources at best, and of disease mongering at worst. We recruited for an internet-based treatment for social phobia.

RESULTS

Applications were received from 789 people, and 205 were rejected because of severe depression or suicidal thoughts. Many were excluded because they had another disorder or were in treatment. Some dropped out, only 7 were subthreshold cases and 291 people with social phobia were treated.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Despite easy access to clinicians, the burden of untreated serious mental disorder in the community remains considerable.