Epidemiology Of Depression

The epidemiology of depression shows that 20% of adults are either directly or indirectly impacted by depression during their lifetime, with twice the number women being diagnosed with the disorder when compared to men. Depression has also been shown to have a hereditary component, with a significant increase in diagnosis for individuals who have a family history of clinical depression. It is also reported that depression is highly correlated with suicide rates and physical disabilities such as cardiovascular disease (Frassure-Smith & Lesperence, 1995), diabetes (Eaton, 2002) and cancer (Massie, 2004) and general health wellbeing. It is estimated that depression costs the Australian economy $12.6 billion per year, with losses in productivity is estimated to …show more content…
In spite of depression having well-known genetic risks, research has struggled to pin point the biological and neurobiological aspects to the disorder. However with developments in technology and the increased research being conducted in the resent year on the biological aspects of depression, more theories and findings are emerging that are bringing hope to suffers of clinical depression. Despite the slow trial and error method in the field of depression, there have been notable progressions in the advancements of the molecular biology of depression. Research methods currently available in unpacking the neurobiology of depression boasts an array of experimental techniques in assessing humans and animals that is unprecedented within the domain of depression. Such procedures including genome-wide DNA sequencing, chromatin