ABSTRACT
Depression has been termed the ‘common cold’ of mental health but this can belie its seriousness with approximately 1 in 333 of those prescribed antidepressants in primary care making a suicide attempt in a 9-month period, with a corresponding figure of 1 in 129 for those starting psychotherapy (Simons and Savarino 2007). Depression affects 9% of individuals over the age of 18 in any given year and approximately 16% of adults will experience depression in their lifetime (Kessler et al. 2003). Unfortunately it tends to be a recurring condition with the average sufferer experiencing four lifetime episodes of 20 weeks duration (Solomon et al. 2001). Depression is the most commonly encountered disorder among psychiatric outpatients (45%), but only 31% of depression sufferers are suffering from depression alone (Zimmerman et al. 2008). Table 4.1 shows the pattern of depression co-morbidity.
