Most People With Depression Aren’t Getting Treatment, Survey Finds

The latest statistics on depression in the U.S. don’t paint a picture of progress, though the condition is common. Nearly 8% of Americans over age 12 have recently been depressed, finds the new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the vast majority aren’t actively getting treatment.

Of those surveyed between 2009 and 2012, about 3% with depression reported having severe symptoms, and nearly all of these people (90%) said their depression made it difficult to work, go to school or participate in their normal activities at home and in other social settings.

Women are more likely than men to be depressed at any age, and women between 40 and 59 years old had the highest rates of depression among the adults studied. While the survey did not delve into the possible reasons for depression, other studies suggest that for many women in this age group, the pressures of balancing work and family responsibilities, including children as well as aging parents, may lead to added mental health burdens.

Poverty seems to be a factor in depression as well. Those living below the federal poverty level were more than twice as likely to be depressed than those living above the line; this trend applied regardless of race or ethnicity.

But what was most concerning to study co-author Laura Pratt, an epidemiologist at the NCHS, was that 65% of people with severe symptoms of depression were not getting help from a mental health professional. “The fact that people aren’t getting treatment is disturbing,” she says. “People with severe depression should be getting therapy from a mental health professional, and they should also in a lot of cases be on a more complicated medication regimen that requires a psychiatrist to treat them. The fact that only 35% have seen a mental health professional in the last year was pretty alarming.”

The data should raise awareness about the prevalence of depression, she says, and hopefully stress the importance of encouraging those with depression to seek help. “It’s serious, it really affects your life and we need to figure out a way to get people treated appropriately,” she says.