Depression, more and more Italian women and unemployed suffer

Depression, one of the leading causes of disability in the world, is an often underestimated pathology, even if there are 322 million people in the world, with an increase nearly 20% in the last ten years.

stresses the WHO, it is a constantly growing and dramatic disease. From 2005 to 2015, an 18.4% increase in cases occurred, but only half of those affected have access to appropriate treatment and treatment, a proportion that falls to 10% in some countries. particularly poor.

The real boom of depression will come in the next decade to become the world's leading cause of work days lost by disability in 2030, surpbading the historical record of cardiovascular disease.

Unfortunately, this pathology is also endemic in Italy: more than 2.8 million Italians suffer from depression, about 5.4% of the population against a European average of 7.1%

ISTAT reveals this by pointing out that depression affects women more (9, 1% versus 4.8% of men) and those who do not work

Looking at the data by bad, the rate of female depression is almost double that of men (9.1% versus 4.8%). As for work, in the population aged 35 to 64, it is estimated that 8.9% of the unemployed and 10.8% of the inactive compared to only 3.5% of the active population

often badociated with chronic anxiety Severe: ISTAT estimates that 7% of the population over the age of 14 (3.7 million people) have suffered from anxious depressive disorders during the year. And with age, the prevalence of depression and severe chronic anxiety increases (from 5.8% between 35-64 years to 14.9% after age 65) that are badociated with social disadvantages and economic: compared to more educated peers, they double among adults with low education and triplicains (16.6% vs. 6.3%) among older people, among whom income differences are less obvious.

In the report "Mental health in different phases of life – years 2015-17", the statistics institute also points out another fact: there are more and more students with disabilities in Italian schools, especially those with mental health problems

In the 2016-17 school year, the ISTAT states, "there are about 3% of students with disabilities in schools of all levels and persons with intellectual disabilities are equal to 2 disabled students over 3 years old. "

Thus, out of 100 students supported, 8.8% have sensory disabilities, 11.6% motor disorders and 19.4% speech disorders, but the dominant part is precisely represented by intellectual disabilities. : 23.9% have an overall disorder of the development of psychological development, 45.4% an intellectual disability, 17.3% suffer from behavioral and attention disorders, 16.5% of relational affective disorders

But why are the numbers growing, especially among the elderly and those who do not work? For the experts, the answer lies in the social isolation, which is increasingly widespread

This is explained by the psychiatrist and former president of the Italian Society of Psychiatry (SIP) Claudio Mencacci. "Depressive disorder – explains the expert – is on the rise especially among older people, especially women, and the root cause lies in the feeling progressive and growing social isolation felt by this population ". Indeed, he notes, "the family and the social network have become impoverished and, in the first place in the metropolises," badistance "of" traditional "good neighborhood of the past has now disappeared."

"Is the spring that, in these subjects, can trigger depression.On the contrary, social relations help keep alive the activity of the brain."

The isolation is still the " key "to explain the increase of the disease even among the unemployed, the unemployed or those with a low level of education: these categories, to which are also added groups of young people who do not have any education. do not study and do not look for work, are among the most threatened ghettoisation. A condition that, in particularly vulnerable people, can easily open the way to depressive disorder. "