Prevention of depressive disorders: towards a further reduction of the disease burden of mental disorders.

摘要

From a public health perspective, depression is one of the most important mental disorders. It is highly prevalent, has a high incidence and is associated with a substantial loss of quality of life for patients and their relatives, increased mortality rates, high levels of service use and enormous economic costs. Major depression is currently ranked fourth worldwide in disease burden, and it is expected to rank first in disease burden in high-income countries by the year 2030. Although current treatments are effective in treating depressive disorders, it is estimated that treatment alone can reduce the disease burden of depression by only about 35%, but only in optimal conditions. Prevention of the incidence of new cases of depression has been suggested as a new strategy next to treatment, which may help to further lower the disease burden.