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From this week's issue of The Coast:

Thursday, October 9 is National Depression Screening Day. This international event calls attention to depression as a serious, life-threatening health problem. As psychologists and as scientists who have long studied and treated depression, we are raising our voices in our city to answer four pressing questions about depression.

Depression can involve symptoms such as sadness, joylessness, irritability, hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, suicidal thoughts, indifference, fatigue, restlessness, weight change, difficulty concentrating and sleep problems. These symptoms range in severity from mild to severe. Depression comes in many different forms: Postpartum depression occurs in women following the birth of a child. Seasonal depression is affected by weather and by time of year. Depression with psychosis includes a loss of touch with reality. And dysthymia is chronic low mood with moderate symptoms of depression. Depression often goes along with other problems such as chronic pain, medical illness, anxiety or alcohol misuse.

Too many people suffer from depression. Over three million Canadian adults will experience a diagnosable episode of depression during their life. Every year, depression costs Canada about $14 billion in treatment expenses and lost productivity. Depression often starts at adolescence, and affects women more frequently than men. Rates have increased markedly in recent decades—by 2020, depression will be the second most disabling health problem in North America (right behind heart disease). Depression is a major contributor to suicide. These statistics, although staggering, fail to capture how intensely a person living with depression suffers. Their family, friends and caregivers suffer too.

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