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QUICK FACTS ABOUT DEPRESSION
- Depression is a medical illness,
not a character weakness.
- One in ten Americans each year
experience a depression.
- Depression does not discriminate;
it affects men and women, young and old, and people of
all races, cultures, and incomes.
- Major Depression is 1.5 to 3
times more common among first-degree biological
relatives of those with the disorder than among the
general population.
- The economic cost of depression
is estimated at $30.4 billion a year but the cost in
human suffering cannot be estimated.
- By the year 2020, the World
Health Organization (WHO) estimates that depression will
be the number two cause of "lost years of healthy life"
worldwide.
- According to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suicide was the
ninth leading cause of death in the United States in
1996.
- Two-thirds of people suffering
from depression do not seek necessary treatment.
- 80% of people who have received
treatment for their depression experience significant
improvement in their lives.
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