People fear depression more than cancer: study

PEOPLE fear depression more than cancer when they think about the disruption the illness would cause in their lives.

Research by the Lundbeck pharmaceutical company found people believed depression would also be more disruptive than even life-threatening illnesses like Parkinson’s or heart disease. Only Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia were rated as more disruptive.

The findings were the result of a survey of 1,059 adults across Ireland in March this year which also shows that most people believe there is a stigma attached to depression.

Just over two-thirds (64%) of all those questioned said depression attracted some or a lot of stigma, but that figure rose to 87% among those who had personal experience of the illness.

Professor Patricia Casey, psychiatrist at the Mater Hospital in Dublin, suggested the attitudes in the survey might be unduly negative.

“Without treatment, depression can have an extremely negative effect on a person’s quality of life. However, with anti-depressants and/or cognitive therapy, it can be effectively treated just like any other illness,” she said.

Co Kerry GP Dr Eamonn Shanahan, who has researched the subject, said the figures reflected the experiences of family doctors with patients in their own surgeries.

“The difficulty is that, while there is an increasing acceptance that depression is part of human nature and that there are lots of people out there with depression, when it comes to the individual, most people say: ‘oh no, that couldn’t be me’.”

Dr Shanahan said that anyone in doubt over whether they were depressed should talk to their GP and get a proper diagnosis. He stressed that most people suffering an episode of depression would not need medication.

“Often times they just need to talk to someone and understand what’s going on with them and very often a GP, another healthcare professional or a counsellor will be all they need.

“There are some people who, perhaps due to their genetic make-up, are chronically predisposed to depression and will need ongoing medication to deal with it, but they are certainly not the largest group.”

Accurate figures for the number of people in Ireland with depression are hard to come by as official estimates put it as high as 400,000 while the Lundbeck survey, which has been repeated each year since 2005, found the numbers admitting personal experience of the illness to be around 180,000.

The survey’s authors say this points again to a reluctance among the public to admit having the illness and a subsequent under-reporting of cases.

The survey found that 27% of people believed depression was a state of mind, not an illness; 62% would find depression hard to discuss with a doctor and 64% would have difficulties discussing it with their peers.