Public forum by PGI today to create awareness about depression

If you have been feeling low, hopeless, have negative thoughts about yourself coupled with a feeling of fatigue, lack of confidence, are losing your appetite and sleep for two weeks, chances are that you may be suffering from depression.

To create awareness about depression, PGIMER is holding a public forum on 'Depression: A global Crisis' at Bhargava Auditorium wherein people from all walks of life are invited for the session on October 18.

In children attending the Psychiatry OPD in PGIMER, data generated in the department revealed an increase in the prevalence of affective disorders, including depression, from 2% to 13.5% over the years.

The data of the department reveals that close to 1/3rd of all patients attending the Walk-in clinic of the Psychiatry OPD are suffering from depression. Depression seems to be increasing in prevalence among children and the elderly attending the Psychiatry OPD.

Besides this, depression is present in 30-40% of all patients attending primary care clinics and the prevalence of depression increases to more than 60% in the elderly and physically ill.

Depression also seems to be more common in the poor, women and those with poor social support. PGI adds about 8000-9000 new patients in the Psychiatry Department annually, out of which 30 per cent are suffering from depression.

The faculty members of the Department of Psychiatry at the PGIMER say that depression is still not taken very seriously and that ignoring the initial symptoms may lead a patient suffering from mild depression to moderate or even severe depression which may even trigger suicidal tendencies in a patient.

Says Dr Savita Malhotra, head of the department of psychiatry at PGIMER, "Depression is not a mood state. It is a disorder like any other illness and needs treatment. While the reasons on why it occurs are still largely unknown and studies all across the globe are going on, we can say depression occurs due to various Bio-Psycho-Social factors."

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