depression, page-57

It appears depression is not selective to the west.

Depression Overlooked in China

"The incidence rate of depression in the Chinese mainland is as high as 2.4 percent. That is to say, there are some 26 million Chinese suffering from depression, 10 percent to 15 percent of whom might even commit suicide," said Zhao Jingping, a member of the Committee of Mental Diseases of the Chinese Medical Association, and the director of the Institute of Mental Health of the affiliated Xiangya No.2 Hospital of the Central South University.

According to Zhao's estimation, depression will become the No.2 costly disease in China by 2020.

However, the disease has long been overlooked by the Chinese. In fact, only less than 20 percent of the patients have been diagnosed, and less than 10 percent have received proper medical therapy, while another 62 percent of them have never bothered to see a doctor for their ailment.

Most depression patients suffer from physical symptoms of unknown causes (69 percent according to the data by World Mental Health Congress), like pains in their bodies. However, physical symptoms sometimes can be misleading, and less than 40 percent of doctors are aware of the relationship between depression and these physical symptoms.

In China, a depression patient is diagnosed after 5 meetings with a doctor in average, not to mention the at least 11-month delay before that. That is to say, it takes years to confirm a depression case, which is painful to both the patient and the society.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2007)

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