Introduction

Abstract

This chapter discusses the state of global mental health as addressed by the 2012 document published by the World Health Organization (WHO) : ‘Depression: A Global Crisis’. The WHO called depression “a global public health concern”, with 350 million sufferers, and with one in 20 people reporting an episode of depression in the previous year; by 2030 the WHO expects it to become the main contributor to the global burden of disease . Depression is currently diagnosed following the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association , and antidepressant use is similarly high and increasing. Yet depression as a mental disease is not differentiated from normal emotions, and the promises of the efficacy and safety of antidepressants are often not fulfilled. The chapters in this book illustrate the best evidence available on the positive and negative aspects of depression diagnosis and treatment.

The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinguishes man from animals.

William Osler