Depression in Australia
Mental health is an issue for many Australians and their families and, as depression diagnoses and antidepressant prescriptions rise, there has been a greater recognition of depression as an important health issue.
Major depression is likely to be second among the leading causes of disease burden throughout the world by 2020, according to World Health Organization predictions. Recent research and surveys have demonstrated that the problem is very real in Australian communities.
Rise in antidepressant use
The Report on Government Services 2001, released in January this year by the Steering Committee for the Review of Commonwealth/State Service Provision, found that depression is the fourth most common problem managed by Australian GPs, even more common than conditions such as arthritis or diabetes.
The report also found that in the period 1998 to 1999, GPs in Australia wrote more than 500 prescriptions for antidepressants per every 1000 people (over 15 years of age).
The study has emphasised the significant role GPs have to play in the management of mental illness: in 1997, 29 per cent of people with a mental health problem discussed their condition with their GP.
Another study, published in the 6 November 2000 issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, highlighted the rise in the use of antidepressants by Australians between 1990 and 1998. The authors suggested that expansion of the overall antidepressant drug market may reflect changes in awareness of depression, and availability and promotion of new antidepressant medications.
The research found that 85 per cent of antidepressant prescriptions written in 1998 subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme were written by GPs, and that the number of antidepressant prescriptions had risen from 5.1 million in 1990 to 8.2 million in 1998.
The researchers stated that before the 1990s, depression had been reported as ‘under-recognised and under treated’, but the past decade has seen a big change in the number of people diagnosed with depression and managed for depression, and there have been changes in the available options for drug therapy and in the amount of antidepressant drugs prescribed.
Australian women speak out about depression
A recent survey of 17,000 Australian women—published in the February 2001 issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly
Last Reviewed: 13 March 2001
- 1. Medical Journal of Australia 2000;173:458-461.
2. Australian Women's Weekly February 2001:105-112.
