BMJ  2006;332:985-986 (29 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7548.985

Editorial

Depression should be managed like a chronic disease

Clinicians need to move beyond ad hoc approaches to isolated acute episodes

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Depression is often referred to as the common cold of psychiatry. But this analogy is wrong: although common, most depressive disorders are not mild and self limiting. It is time that we treated depression as the chronic disease that it is.

The World Bank ranks unipolar depression as the number one contributor to the global burden of disease in adults aged 19-45 in the developed world.¹ Up to 15% of adults may experience clinical depression, 20% will not recover fully from the index episode, and 70-80% of those achieving remission succumb to at least one recurrence. Eighty per cent of individuals with milder persistent symptoms or dysthymia will develop a major depressive episode, and 15% of all patients with depression will eventually commit suicide.

Ninety per cent of cases of depression are treated in primary care, where depression is the third most common reason for consultation. Two articles in . . . [Full text of this article]

Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
(j.scott@iop.kcl.ac.uk)

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Biegler, P. (2008). Autonomy, stress, and treatment of depression. BMJ 336: 1046-1048 [Full text]  
• Raven, M. K (2006). Depression should be managed like a chronic disease: myth of 15% suicide rate was promulgated again.. BMJ 332: 1154-1154 [Full text]  
• Summerfield, D. A (2006). Depression should be managed like a chronic disease: what exactly is "depression"?. BMJ 332: 1154-1154 [Full text]  

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