Depression Depressing the World Economy
By editor | June 18, 2007
Depression, a common term for a sad or low mood or the loss of pleasure; an emotion that does not affect capacity to perform personal and vocational obligations
There are 330 million people around the world suffering from depression. According to Dr Christopher Murray from the World Health Organization (WHO), major depression will be the world’s second-most debilitating disease by 2020 - losing a number of years of productive life that is surpassed only by cardiovascular disease. Medical scientists estimate that rates of major depression are between four and ten per cent of the world population and life-time prevalence of the condition - the chance of developing it at some point - runs between ten and twenty per cent.
And WHO says the global total of suicides attributable to depression per year is 800,000. Cashing in on this trend are companies supplying a $7-billion worldwide market for anti-depressants - expected to expand 50 per cent over the next five years. But joining the anti-Prozac backlash are countries like Germany, where the herbal remedy St John’s Wort is seven times more popular than Prozac for treating depression.
Others say poverty may have something to do with depression’s cause and cure - Russia’s rates of depression soared in recent years as the economy drooped and in the West the poor suffer disproportionately from the disease.
Depression is something a bunch of us are going through, or will go through. There are varying degrees of depression, ranging from just a perpetual sadness to severe, debilitating clinical depression. I have also included information on bipolar disorder, or manic depression if you will, since it’s on the same branch of psychology. Whichever it is, you will probably benefit from eating up as much knowledge about it as you can.
Depression pushes you against surfaces, and adds heaviness either atom by atom or all at once until the strain of this motion dominates all else. It is one-pointed, claustrophobic, and circular. It doubts, denies, and questions everything that comes in contact with it.
Already Depressed the Word Economy:
The Great Depression was a time of economic down turn, which started after the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. It began in the United States and quickly spread to Europe and every part of the world, with devastating effects in both then industrialized countries and those which exported raw materials. International trade declined sharply, as did personal incomes, tax revenues, prices and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries.
Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by 40 to 60 percent.[1] Mining and logging areas had perhaps the most striking blow because the demand fell sharply and there were few employment alternatives. The Great Depression ended at different times in different countries; for subsequent history see Home front during World War II. The majority of countries set up relief programs, and most underwent some sort of political upheaval, pushing them to the left or right. Democracy was weakened and on the defensive, as dictators such as Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini made major gains, which helped set the stage for World War II in 1939.
Tags: clinical depression Depression Tips major depression manic depression treating depression
If you like this post, please vote for it:
Topics: Depression Tips |