Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T23:42:41.300Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Depression: counting the costs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Peter M. Haddad
Peter M. Haddad*
Affiliation:
Stanley House, Department of Psychological Medicine, 553 Wilmslow Road, Manchester M20 9BX
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Merck Essay Prize was inaugurated in 1993. All trainee psychiatrists (senior house officers, registrars or senior registrars) in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland were eligible to submit an essay on the topic: ‘Depression: Counting the Costs’. The winning essay by Dr Peter Haddad is printed here. The runners-up in Joint second place were Dr J. Bray, Lecturer, University of Leicester (Leicester General Hospital) and Dr R. Bullock, Senior Registrar, St Mary Abbots Hospital, London.

Depressive illness is the commonest form of mental disorder in the community. Its effects are far-reaching and include psychological suffering and social disruption for affected individuals and their families, increased mortality, and direct and indirect financial costs for society. Only about half of all cases of depression are recognised by doctors and not all of these receive effective treatment. The costs of depression could be reduced if detection and treatment were improved. Addressing this is a major challenge for psychiatric services.

Type
Original papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 25 - 28
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994

References

Coyne, J.C., Kessler, R.C., Tal, M. et al (1987) Living with a depressed person. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 55, 347–352.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. & Huxley, P. (1980) Mental Illness in the Community: the pathway to psychiatric care. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Hagnell, O., Lanke, J., Rorsman, B. & Ojeslo, L. (1982) Are we entering an age of melancholy? Depressive illnesses in a prospective epidemiological study over 25 years, the Lundby study. Sweden. Psychological Medicine. 12, 279–285.Google Scholar
Pitts, F.N. & Winokun, G. (1964) Affective disorders III: diagnostic correlates and incidence of suicide. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 139, 176–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhimer, Z., Barsi, J., Veg, K. & Katona, C.L.E. (1990) Suicide rates in Hungary correlate negatively with reported rates of depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 20, 87–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutz, W., Carlsson, P., von Knorring, L. & Walinder, J. (1992) Cost-benefit analysis of an educational program for general practitioners by the Swedish Committee for the Prevention and Treatment of Depression. Acta Psychiatric Scandinavica, 85, 457–464.Google Scholar
Shaw, J. & Creed, F. (1991) The cost of somatisation. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 35, 307–312.Google Scholar
Stoudemire, A., Frank, R., Hedemark, N., Kamlet, M. & Balzer, D. (1986) The economic burden of depression. General Hospital Psychiatry. 8, 387–394.Google Scholar
Weissman, M.M., Leaf, P.J., Tischler, G.L., Blazer, D.G. et al (1988) Affective disorders in five United States communities. Psychological Medicine. 18, 141–153.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.