The vast majority of the estimated 350 million people worldwide suffering from depression are not receiving even minimally adequate treatment, according to an international study backed by the World Health Organization.

    The research, which covered almost 50,000 people in 21 countries, found that even in wealthy nations with relatively good health services, barely 20% of depression patients get adequate treatment while in poor countries the situation is far worse, the study found, with only one in 27 people with depression receiving adequate treatment. "Much treatment currently offered to people with depression falls far short," a professor at King's College London who led the study Graham Thornicroft said. 

    He called on national and international organizations to increase resources and scale up provision of mental health services, so that no one with depression is left behind.

    The study, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday, analyzed data from WHO mental health surveys in 21 countries including Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Iraq, Mexico, Nigeria, China, Argentina, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

Source: QNA