Topic Mental Health

4

Epidemiological Literature Review

Depression

Depressions are the major public health issue that is affecting people globally. A person being so stressed may be due to economic crisis, background issues like poverty, sexual assaults, and lack of self-esteem contributing to depression. The state in which depression affects people, leading to a high mortality rate, is a crisis that needs to be dealt with (Aalbers et al., 2019). The mental disorder influences a person's moods, hence causing them to be in low interest for pleasure and daily activities. Depression contributes to more suicidal cases or societal crimes like raping and theft cases. Lack of a close person to communicate with when such issues arise can result in psychological torture, which increases the rate of depression. Therefore, depression is a public health issue that needs to be addressed since the same affected most young people over the past decades.

The research article by Amieva et al. (2018) shows that the most affected individuals by depression are the youths, especially the males. The country's economic status contributes to a high rate of depression among males than females due to the high rate of unemployment that has resulted in the majority of them being stressed about the best place to get employment. On the other hand, racism has become the major problem for most people due to oppression and mistreatment that hinders them from having access to their rights despite their racial differences. In this case, most of the people affected by racial disparities tend to be tormented psychologically, resulting in mental disorders. The rate at which the males are depressed is more than the females based on the epidemiological assessment model. In the United States, where racism was mostly embraced, the majority of the black people were tormented through brutal beating and killing, and sexual assault (Al-Mosaiwi & Johnstone 2018). The rate at which people were depressed is disgusting as most of them lacked peace; hence they got depressed to the point of death. On the other hand, depression is a major crisis affecting elderly people since most of them have psychological burdens due to more diseases and family issues.

The National Center for health statistics stipulated that more than 45% of females have been more affected by depression in the past two years. The findings showed that sexual assaults had become more in societies resulting in low self-esteem among to majority of them. The result showed that chauvinistic societies inhibit more pressure on females as they do not give them the right to express themselves, and they have limited access to resources and opportunities (Lohman et al., 2016). Therefore, society contributes to depression state to females as recorded in the past two years. Depression to the youths is a crisis that is contributing to a high rate of school dropout, especially for youth between 13 years to 19 years; school dropout is due to most students being stressed due to family issues, poverty, lack of basic needs, sexual assaults, racism and early pregnancies (Griffiths et al., 2016). Most parents lack the skills to nurture their children through guidance and counseling to give them the time to express their emotions and share their issues. In the past three years, the rate at which youths commit suicide has been more than 50%, and the rate is increasing annually. The rapid increase of suicidal cases is due to a lack of psychological stability due to a depression state.

The best strategy that can be used to deal with depression as a public health issue is to provide a suitable environment to give rights of expression. Research shows that most people do not have access to counseling due to a lack of income (Schuch et al., 2016). Therefore, it is a requirement from the government to ensure that people are given counseling at free charge. In addition, youths need to be embraced by providing equal resources and counseling sessions in schools. In addition, it is time for the people to reduce the ideology of oppression due to racial differences, and sexual assaults should be prohibited. Any person who violates the law should be sued. People are encouraged to share their issues with others to ensure that they are not stressed. The economic status deters the living standards; hence entrepreneurial jobs should be invented to create more opportunities.

References

Aalbers, G., McNally, R. J., Heeren, A., De Wit, S., & Fried, E. I. (2019). Social media and depression symptoms: A network perspective. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(8), 1454.

Al-Mosaiwi, M., & Johnstone, T. (2018). In an absolute state: Elevated absolutist words are markers specific to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(4), 529-542.

Amieva, H., Ouvrard, C., Meillon, C., Rullier, L., & Dartigues, J. F. (2018). Death, depression, disability, and dementia associated with self-reported hearing problems: a 25-year study. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 73(10), 1383-1389.

Griffiths, R. R., Johnson, M. W., Carducci, M. A., Umbricht, A., Richards, W. A., Richards, B. D., ... & Klinedinst, M. A. (2016). Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized, double-blind trial. Journal of psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1181-1197.

Lohman, M., Dumenci, L., & Mezuk, B. (2016). Depression and frailty in late life: evidence for a common vulnerability. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 71(4), 630-640.

Schuch, F. B., Vancampfort, D., Richards, J., Rosenbaum, S., Ward, P. B., & Stubbs, B. (2016). Exercise as a treatment for depression: a meta-analysis adjusting for publication bias. Journal of psychiatric research, 77, 42-51.