The nation is experiencing a disturbing trend of increased incidence of depression among young people, with a recent survey showing the onset of the affliction begins in the mid-20s, a doctor at National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Tainan City said yesterday.
Most people experience temporary sadness or melancholy, a loss of memory, a loss of capacity to learn, and lapses in concentration before returning to normal within two or three days.
But people stricken by depression show emotional, behavioral and cognitive symptoms and signs of habitual negative thoughts, said Chiang Ming-kai (姜明凱), a doctor with the Department of Family Medicine at the Tainan-based university.
He said that the prevalence of depression varies considerably across regions around the globe, ranging from 5 percent to 25 percent.
Fifteen percent of people worldwide have suffered depression at some point in their lives.
About 200 million people in the world suffer from depression, Chiang said, with the rate of incidence among females one-and-a-half times to two times higher than among males.
Depression has been increasingly evident among Taiwan’s younger population, with 24 being the average age of the onset of the mental disease, Chiang said, citing a recent survey.
He said that among young sufferers, most showed only mild symptoms that did not last for long periods in their first bout of depression, and rarely sought treatment.
But the disease grows progressively worse in 80 percent of those individuals, Chiang said, and more than a few contemplate suicide.
Chiang said depression can affect not only mental health but also physical health, affecting cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, urogenital, skeletal, nervous and skin immune systems.
The WHO has classified depression as one of the top three most common diseases of the 21st century.
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