The Global Crisis of Depression conference: high co-morbidity, high costs, few answers

John Andrews, consultant editor of The Economist, opened the Global Crisis of Depression conference in London on Tuesday by citing the 92 billion-euro ($115 billion) annual cost of the disease to Europe - this is the magnitude of the crisis contemporary society is dealing with.

It is the leading global cause of disability, and special address speaker, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said “calling the challenge of depression a ‘global crisis’ is no exaggeration at all.” He spoke of the major gap between provisions for physical health care in developed countries, and the frequent lack of any mental health care framework in developing countries. “Treating depression in primary care is affordable and cost-effective,” he said.

Norman Lamb, Minister for Care and Support at the UK's Department of Health, in his address on the political imperatives to address mental health and depression, said: “We are held back by an imbalance in the payment system,” and referenced the “institutional bias” against mental health. Patients, he said, can see a cancer specialist within two weeks in the UK but no such guarantees exist for patients with mental health diagnoses.