DEPRESSION 1
Effect of the Increased Rate of Depression in the United States
Florida International University
Dayana Lewandowski
HSA 6717
January 9, 2020
Background and Introduction
In the recent decade, depression has been termed as a modern-day epidemic due to the increasing rate of depression cases in the United States. Most people view depression as commonly encountered chronic conditions in primary care, leading to an increased rate of depression in the world since it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. People and healthcare organizations tend to ignore the sign of depression as they term it as a mere stressful mood or sad feeling that will go away with time (Orgeta, Qazi, Spector, & Orrell, 2015). This does not always happen as a small, sad feeling may advance to a more severe problem, which has caused an increased rate of depression in the United States.
Depression is a disease like other diseases that require healthcare attention through treatment. It is a mental disorder disease that presents with low self-esteem, stress, feeling guilt, depressed mood, poor concentration, loss of interest, loss of appetite, low self-worth, and disturbed sleep (El Bayoumi & Ismail, 2015). Depression problem is usually brought by lifetime events that face human being in their daily life where some people are weak to handle the situation. This event may include health issues, loss of loved one, relationship, loose of something one holds closes to them. It may also be occurred due to no apparent reasons like the one named above.
There is a different type of depression that vary on how an individuals depression sign and symptoms manifest themselves. The major depression experienced by United States citizens and all over the world is Major Depression Disorder (MDD) that is characterized by a mood disorder (Albert, 2019). Other types include premenstrual dysphoric disorder suffered mostly by women.
In healthcare facilities, there is no laboratory test to diagnosis depression, and the primary analysis is done id to evaluate the cause of the depression. The diagnosis process is more of an art than a science, and medical physicians generally depend upon the patient’s symptoms and signs. Currently, most of the doctor depends on diagnostics and statistical manual of mental disorder to provide a more detailed analysis of the disease.
According to Olfson, Blanco, & Marcus (2016), depression is mostly experienced by more women than men, while unemployed people are at high risk of being affected. Different depression episodes may be characterized by varying signs and symptoms depending on what triggered the events such as motor retardation, sleep patterns, feeling of guilt or shame, fatigue, among others.
Depression is increasingly being perceived as a global healthcare problem due to increased mental health issues related to depression in the world. The perspective of depression rate perceived as a global health problem is widely covered by the World Health Organization (WHO), providing evidence of increased depression rates in the world. The world health organization analysis shows that ten to twenty per cents of internal medicine inpatient and outpatient suffer from depressive illnesses. The same rate is experienced by the patient suffering from chronical disease leading to a high percentage of depression in the world.
In the United States, more than seventeen million adults suffer from major depressive episodes. The rate continues to increase as young people below the age of eighteen years have expressed a high sigh of depression effects in the United States (Kuehner, 2017). Women are mostly affected by major depressive disorder compared to men representing more than eight percent, while men show five percent of the effect. The significant difference between women and men affected by depression is high between the age of eighteen and twenty-five years.
According to Olfson, Blanco, & Marcus (2016), the high increased rate of depression in the world is because most of the people with depression do not receive medical treatment for their signs and symptoms until it is too late for them. Approximately fifty percent of the adults have a major depressive disorder in their lifetime medical history seek medical attention and treatment in health care facilities. In contrast, forty-eight percent do not receive mental healthcare attention within a year. It shows the high risk of people suffering from depression increasing due to a lack of access to medical treatment, increasing the already existing depression (Haddad & Boyce, 2017). This is because there no population leaving the suffering population through the procedure, while others continue to suffer from depression.
Another dominant perception that has led to an increasing rate of depression is the belief by the American citizen and medical physician that distress is chronically under-diagnosed among people or in the society and therefore undertreated (Siu et al., 2016). The views are evidence among public health institutions as less than twenty-five percent of patients suffering from depression globally have access to medical treatment. It has contributed to the global problem of diseases discussed most in the world.
The apparent increase in the depression rate in the world has been caused by the change of the definitions of depression and the diagnosis process under the new diagnostic statistic manual that is widely used in the United States (Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2017). The method distinguishes mental disorder according to patient patterns of signs and symptoms usually used by a medical physician, policymaker, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies. The process considers depression disease as a minor reaction of mental distress grounded in stress and anxiety. This fails to recognize depressions as a condition by itself leading to many cases of depression worldwide.
Diagnostic statistical manual receives significant criticism of its validity and reliability of classifying and defining mental disorders such as depression. It has set the threshold of diagnosis of depression too law leading to confusion of the causes and behavioral signs to distinguish it from normal distress (Knapen, Vancampfort, Moriën, & Marchal, 2014). There is a need for the appropriate classification of mental disorder to clearly identify normal distress from depression related signs and symptoms.
The medicalization of distress has contributed to a high rate of depression in the United States (Twenge, Joiner, Rogers, & Martin, 2017). Despite the benefits of overdiagnosis of symptom-based classification of mental illness, the process had experiences difficulties in the expansion of diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder. Effective diagnosis of mental illness helps in the development of treatment of depression, decreases in the social stigma of mental illness.
The increasing rate of antidepressant prescription of depression cases in the United States is used as a measure for depression rate. In the recent decade, there has been an increase in the antidepressant prescription that has become a normal prescribed class of medication in the United States (Cusack et al., 2016). The increased antidepressant use has led to and the new form of treatment of depression that helps to determine the current mental disorder in health service. Notably, increase use of antidepressant prescriptions has led to unmet needs for treatment for depression, which is a widely appropriate medical response.
The effort to address the unmet needs, such as economic burden societal problems by targeting the cause of under-diagnosis for diagnosis and treatment of depression, helps to curb the rate of depression. Increased overdiagnosis of the causes of depression may result in a increased productivity, improved physical health, reduced discrimination, reduced suicide rate, decreased social stigma, and reduced mental illness. It also reduces the problem associated with depression, such as drug and substance use, alcohol abuse, and suicidal case.
According to Olfson, Blanco, & Marcus (2016), more harm is caused to depression patients by failing to diagnosis severe depression than overdiagnosis and its consequence. This is the primary cause of the increased suicidal cases of excessive abuse of alcohol by depressed people. It may lead to the use of antidepressant drugs by patients who may not need them while those in need fails to get the medicine.
Purpose of the Study
The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate the causes of the increased rate of depression in the United States and come up with ways to mitigate the high rate from expanding any further. The increase rate of depression is alarming in the United States and other parts of the world, leading to a significant global health problem in the health sector (Rosenbaum, Stubbs, & Vancampfort, 2018). The number of people affected by depression is increasing daily due to a lack of proper diagnosis and treatment of distress. It also to close the existing knowledge gap on the recent cases of the high rate of depression, method of preventing new trends in mental disorder, future ways of dealing with diagnosis and treatment of depression.
Research Question
1. To evaluate the causes of increased depression rates in the United States.
2. To determine the diagnosis and treatment of depression
3. To determine the appropriate method to curb the increasing depression rate in the United States.
Significance of the Study
The study is aimed at helping the health care sector, especially the medical physician, in dealing with the problem of depression in curbing the rate of mental illness. The study identifies the causes of depression that have been a significant hindrance in dealing with the depression case (Rosenbaum, Stubbs, & Vancampfort, 2018). Most of the medical physician face challenges in differentiating the cause of various mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, distress, and sadness.
The study also helps in coming up with the best diagnosis method and treatment that is effective in dealing with depression rates. One of the major problems leading to a high rate of depression is a lack of a problem method to diagnosis depression and provide appropriate treatment that will be covered in the study. It will also develop the best techniques to deal with depression disorder in the United States to reduce the economic burden of dealing with depression by the government.
The study also contributes to the existing research knowledge that assists the academic progress of the existing problem in healthcare service. Other researchers and academics will use the information in supporting their evidence as well as expanding to the research.
References
Albert, P. R. (2019). Adult neuroplasticity: A new cure for major depression? Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 44(3), 147-150. doi:10.1503/jpn.190072
Cusack, K., Jonas, D. E., Forneris, C. A., Wines, C., Sonis, J., Middleton, J. C., Gaynes, B. N. (2016). Psychological treatments for adults with posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 43, 128-141. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2015.10.003
El Bayoumi, H., & Ismail, Z. (2015). Treatment-resistant depression in later life. Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, 40(6), E34-E35. doi:10.1503/150114
Haddad, M., & Boyce, P. (2017). Fast Facts: Depression. doi:10.1159/isbn.978-1-910797-62-4
Knapen, J., Vancampfort, D., Moriën, Y., & Marchal, Y. (2014). Exercise therapy improves both mental and physical health in patients with major depression. Disability and Rehabilitation, 37(16), 1490-1495. doi:10.3109/09638288.2014.972579
Kuehner, C. (2017). Why is depression more common among women than among men? The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(2), 146-158. doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(16)30263-2
Olfson, M., Blanco, C., & Marcus, S. C. (2016). Treatment of adult depression in the United States. JAMA internal medicine, 176(10), 1482-1491. doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.5057
Orgeta, V., Qazi, A., Spector, A., & Orrell, M. (2015). Psychological treatments for depression and anxiety in dementia and mild cognitive impairment: Systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 207(4), 293-298. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.114.148130
Rosenbaum, S., Stubbs, B., & Vancampfort, D. (2018). Research and Evaluation in Exercise and Mental Health. Exercise-Based Interventions for Mental Illness, 301-317. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-812605-9.00016-2
Siu, A. L., Bibbins-Domingo, K., Grossman, D. C., Baumann, L. C., Davidson, K. W., & Ebell, M. (2016). Screening for Depression in Adults. JAMA, 315(4), 380. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.18392
Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2017). Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17. doi:10.1177/2167702617723376
