We’re at the height of a mental health crisis, where 40 million people in the European Union (EU) alone live with depression, yet three out of four say they don’t receive adequate treatment for this. With the European Economic and Social Committee strongly recommending that the European Commission declare 2024 as the European Year of Mental Health, it’s time for policymakers, healthcare systems and society to do more and start taking action.
In 2021, just over 7% of the EU’s population reported having chronic depression – that’s one in 14 people. To put this into perspective, it means that we’re all likely to know at least one person who suffers from this disease, or may have even struggled with it ourselves.
It’s been described as the silent pandemic, and everybody from policymakers, healthcare systems and employers to wider society have a part to play in achieving the overarching goal: remission of symptoms – the key objective of treating depression – and a return to more manageable daily functioning for people living with depression.
Unfortunately, this is no easy journey.
Firstly, depression is notoriously difficult to treat, with only 40-60% of patients achieving remission after an initial antidepressant treatment. Individuals battling depression, along with their healthcare providers, have to navigate an array of barriers that have slowed the progression of treatment innovation and access to this innovation.
Barriers including stigma, a lack of vital knowledge, and the current rating scales used to measure patients’ response and remission in clinical settings have all contributed in some way to hampering progress against effective depression treatment. So, what do we do?
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