抑郁：影響身心健康的二號殺手

Depression is the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain, according to a review of research.

The disease must be treated as a global public health priority, experts report in the journal PLOS Medicine.

The study compared clinical depression with more than 200 other diseases and injuries as a cause of disability.

Globally, only a small proportion of patients have access to treatment, the World Health Organization says.

Depression was ranked at number two as a global cause of disability, but its impact varied in different countries and regions. For example, rates of major depression were highest in Afghanistan and lowest in Japan. In the UK, depression was ranked at number three in terms of years lived with a disability.

Dr Alize Ferrari from the University of Queensland's School of Population Health led the study.

"Depression is a big problem and we definitely need to pay more attention to it than we are now," she told BBC News.

"There's still more work to be done in terms of awareness of the disease and also in coming up with successful ways of treating it.

"The burden is different between countries, so it tends to be higher in low and middle income countries and lower in high income countries."

Policy-makers had made an effort to bring depression to the forefront, but there was a lot more work to be done, she added.

"There's lots of stigma we know associated with mental health," she explained.

"What one person recognises as disabling might be different to another person and might be different across countries as well, there are lots of cultural implications and interpretations that come in place, which makes it all the more important to raise awareness of the size of the problem and also signs and how to detect it."

The data - for the year 2010 - follows similar studies in 1990 and 2000 looking at the global burden of depression.

Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Chisholm, a health economist at the department for mental health and substance abuse at the World Health Organization said depression was a very disabling condition.

"It's a big public health challenge and a big problem to be reckoned with but not enough is being done.

"Around the world only a tiny proportion of people get any sort of treatment or diagnosis."

The WHO recently launched a global mental health action plan to raise awareness among policy-makers.

據(jù)BBC新聞網(wǎng)站4月3日報道，研究顯示，抑郁是引發(fā)身心障礙的第二大原因，僅次于背痛。

美國著名醫(yī)學(xué)雜志《PLOS Medicine》的專家報告稱，必須將抑郁作為全球公眾健康首要問題來對待。

該研究將臨床抑郁癥與其他200多種引發(fā)身心障礙的疾病和傷痛進(jìn)行了對比。

世界衛(wèi)生組織表示，全世界僅有小部分病人得到了治療。

抑郁已成為世界第二大身心健康影響因素，但其影響因國家和地區(qū)而異。比如，重度抑郁的比例在阿富汗最高，在日本最低。在英國，困擾病人最久的健康問題中，抑郁排在第三。

昆士蘭大學(xué)人口衛(wèi)生學(xué)院的阿利茲·費拉里(Alize Ferrari)博士負(fù)責(zé)此項研究。

她在接受BBC采訪時說，“抑郁是個大問題，我們必須予以更多的關(guān)注。”

“要讓人們意識到這種疾病的嚴(yán)重性，研發(fā)成功的治療方法，我們?nèi)沃囟肋h(yuǎn)。”

“各國人民承擔(dān)的壓力不同，中低收入國家往往負(fù)擔(dān)更重，而高收入國家負(fù)擔(dān)較低。”

她接著說道，決策者們曾努力使抑郁問題得到重視，但還有許多工作要做。

“我們知道許多病癥和心理健康有關(guān)。”她解釋道。

“對病癥的理解因人而異，有可能各國的解釋都有差異，一個國家獨有的文化內(nèi)涵和詮釋在其中起了重要作用。因此，讓人們認(rèn)識到問題的嚴(yán)重性，了解病癥和診斷方法，顯得更加重要。”

2010年的數(shù)據(jù)是采用1990年和2000年研究全球抑郁負(fù)擔(dān)的類似方法得出的。

丹尼爾·奇澤姆(Daniel Chisholm)博士是世界衛(wèi)生組織心理健康與藥物濫用署的健康經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家，他說抑郁非常容易導(dǎo)致健康問題。

“這是對公眾健康的巨大挑戰(zhàn)，是應(yīng)認(rèn)真對待的大問題，現(xiàn)在做得還遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠。”

“全世界僅有一小部分病人得到相應(yīng)的治療或診斷。”

世界衛(wèi)生組織最近啟動了一項全球心理健康行動計劃，以便提升決策者們對此問題的認(rèn)識。