Understanding Depression & Suicide
Depression
A serious, treatable, very common medical illness.
- Typified by sadness, sleeping too little or too much, eating too little or too much, and loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities.
- Disease responsible for the most years lived with disability, according to the World Health Organization.
- Divided into unipolar depression (only depressive episodes) and bipolar disorder (depressive episodes alternating with manic periods of elevated mood).
- Unipolar depression usually treated best with antidepressant medication plus psychotherapy.
- Bipolar disorder treatment usually includes mood stabilizer.
Suicide is an all too common result of depression.
Third leading cause of death of U.S. adolescents ages 15-19.
Eleventh leading cause of death in the U.S. overall.
90% of suicide attempts made by clinically depressed individuals.
More common that homicide in the U.S.
More frequently attempted by women over men in the U.S.
More frequently completed by men than women in the U.S.
Highest rate of successful suicide in older white men living in the U.S.
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90% of suicide attempts made by clinically depressed individuals.
More common that homicide in the U.S.
More frequently attempted by women over men in the U.S.
More frequently completed by men than women in the U.S.
Highest rate of successful suicide in older white men living in the U.S.
Make A Difference