Psychiatric services for depression lacking: Paper

Depressive disorders in China were more prevalent in women than men, unemployed people than employed and people who were divorced, separated or widowed than those who were married or cohabiting, according to a paper recently released by Chinese researchers.

The paper also revealed that few people suffering the condition had received proper treatment, underscoring the need to step up mental health services, experts said during a forum centering on the paper on Sunday.

The findings were based on a survey conducted on the Chinese mainland from 2013 to 2015 in China, enrolling more than 32,500 people aged 18 or above.

Researchers from First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Peking University Sixth Hospital's Institute of Mental Health and several other institutions analyzed data from the survey and published their results in the online version of The Lancet Psychiatry on Tuesday.

Different conditions of depression are the most common form of mental disorders in China and around the globe. Depressive disorders affected 6.9 percent of Chinese people over the course of their lives and 3.6 percent in the previous 12 months, according to previous studies.

The new paper has offered a more detailed picture of depression's prevalence in China, pointing to females, the unemployed and people who are divorced, separated or widowed as groups at higher risk of developing the condition.

In addition, only 9.5 percent of people who were diagnosed with depressive disorders had received treatment and a mere 0.5 percent were treated adequately, according to the paper.

Wang Yu, former director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said one of the most prominent issues in the mental health sector is a shortage of proper mental health services catering to the demands of the public.

"Compared to healthcare services targeting other diseases, public use of mental health services is much less common," he said. Wang is not involved in the study.

He has called for long-term investment to boost mental health services, launching early intervention measures and nurturing more psychiatric specialists in the future.