heidi
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 Posted: 09/12/07 - 23:34 Post subject: Depression more damaging to chronic illnesses |
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Depression was found to be more damaging to everyday health than some chronic diseases like angina, arthritis, asthma and diabetes and we should not mention the effects depression may have on general health if combined with some of these illnesses.
Researchers from the World Health Organisation discovered that when a person suffers from depressive symptoms along with a chronic illness, it is highly unlikely to get better if the depression symptoms are not addressed as depression was found to worsen diseases.
These reports come from the largest population-based worldwide study that explored the effects of depression in comparison with four other chronic diseases on health state.
The impact of different conditions was calculated by asking people questions about their functioning in everyday situations-moving around, seeing things at a distance and remembering information. The study results showed that depression worsened health state much more than the other diseases. WHO data gathered from 60 countries and over 240,000 people showed that between 9% and 23% of the people had depression along with one or more of four other chronic diseases like asthma, angina, arthritis and diabetes. The worse effects came from the combination of diabetes and depression.
Study researchers reported that living with diabetes and depression together for one year makes a person live with 60% of their full health. This is one of the main reasons why depression asks for better treatment and understanding. Doctors usually concentrate on dealing with the chronic disease rather than the depressive symptoms but most often it is depression that is worsening the chronic disease and has damaging effects to the overall health. |
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