DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE

Depression and Suicide

Depression and Suicide

Introduction

Depression is a potentially life-threatening mood disorder that affects up to 12% of the population, or approximately 17.6 million Americans each year. In addition to considerable pain and suffering that interfere with individual functioning, depression affects those who care about the ill person, sometimes destroying family relationships or work dynamics between the patient and others. The economic cost of depressive illness is estimated at $30-44 billion a year in the United States alone. The human cost cannot be overestimated.

As many as two thirds of the people with depression do not realize that they have ...