Study finds blacks suffer more severe depression

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Depression is more disabling among black people, although it is more common among whites.
Depression is the fourth leading cause of disability worldwide. Now researchers at Harvard School of Public Health reveal that depression is more common among white people, but more disabling among blacks. They suruveyed a group of over 6,000 individuals and found that 17.9 per cent of whites and 10.4 per cent of African Americans had suffered from depression at some stage in their lives. Among Caribbean blacks, the rate was 12.9 per cent. Chronic depression was reported by 56.5 per cent of the African Americans with depression, 56 per cent of the Caribbean Americans and 38.6 per cent of the whites.

Fewer than half of the African Americans and fewer than a quarter of the Caribbean blacks received treatment for depression. Rates of treatment for whites were not measured in this study but the national average for depression treatment is 57 per cent. Therefore black people are clearly bearing an excessive burden from depression, caused by chronicity and lack of treatment. Further investigation is needed to reveal the causes for this inequity and to find ways of remedying it - such as providing better access to depression treatment for black people.

Source
Archives of General Psychiatry March 2007

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