NEW DELHI: Over five crore Indians suffered from depression, a major contributor to global suicides which occurred mainly in low- and middle-income countries like India in 2015, a WHO study has said.
The World Health Organisation in its new global health estimates on depression for 2015 said while over five crore Indians suffered from depression, over three crore others suffered from anxiety disorders.
The report titled ‘Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders – Global Health Estimates’ said over two-thirds of global suicides were in low- and middle-income countries like India in 2015.
The WHO document said that 322 million people are living with depression worldwide and nearly half of them live in South East Asian and Western Pacific region, reflecting relatively large populations of India and China.
“The total number of people living with depression in the world is 322 million. Nearly half of these people live in the South-East Asia Region and Western Pacific Region, reflecting the relatively larger populations of those two Regions which include India and China,” the document said.
The total estimated number of people living with depression increased by 18.4 per cent between 2005 and 2015, it said.
According to WHO figures, the total cases of depressive disorders in 2015 in India were 5,66,75,969 which was 4.5 per cent of population in 2015 while total cases of anxiety disorders were 3,84,250,93 which was 3 per cent of the population in the same year period. (AGENCIES)
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