About depression
Many people experience depression - it's a normal part of the human condition, a natural response to loss and hard times. The more often a person has been depressed, the more likely depression will return.
The first couple of times depression happens it tends to be after major negative life events. Over time, the link between life events and depression seems to become weaker - depression can be triggered by very small things - even the low mood everyone experiences on a day-to-day basis when things are not going well.
What triggers and maintains depression?
Two factors make mild sadness more likely to get worse: a pattern of negative thinking and a tendency to want to escape from difficult experience.
A thinking pattern of going over and over repetitively trying to fix things and being self-critical is typical of people vulnerable to depression.
Attempting to keep painful thoughts and emotions away by avoiding them or pushing them away.
Both of these are motivated by the desire to prevent being overwhelmed by depression, but actually have the effect of triggering it and keeping it going.
How common is depression?
About one in ten of the population experience depression in any year - NHS statistics for Wales show a quarter of a million people are being treated for depression, and it's estimated three in every four cases of depression is going unrecognised - and untreated.
Tim Watkins, director of Journeys, the UK's first and only charity to concentrate on helping people to recover from depression, said: "After heart disease, depression is the number one public health issue in Wales today."
In Wales, there are roughly twice as many deaths in people of all ages each year as a result of suicide compared to death due to road traffic accidents.
Recurring depression and suicide
For people who've been depressed three times or more, the likelihood of being depressed again is about nine in ten. One of the most obvious burdens of depression is the increased risk of suicide - the risk of suicide increases enormously in those who suffer recurrent depression.
Treatment
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends a variety of treatments, including anti-depressant medication and talking therapies. In England the Improved Access to Psychological Treatments initiative has received £170 million Government funding whilst in Wales the equivalent has yet to be invested.
There are considerable waiting lists in most areas of Wales for talking therapies for depression. Doctors treating people with depression may prescribe anti-depressants as they often have no alternative to offer.
NICE guidelines recommend offering people a number of approaches, including one of the talking therapies - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
Services providing CBT have considerable waiting lists and the availability of talking therapies for young people up to the age of 18 is even more limited.
Rather than treating depression when it happens, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is intended to break the repetitive cycle of depression. The Staying Well After Depression research team at Bangor University in conjunction with Oxford University are presently testing this radically different approach to treating depression in adults.
What the researchers in Bangor and Oxford are asking is.
Does MBCT reduce the recurrence of depression for people with suicidal thoughts and feelings while they are depressed?
Does MBCT help reduce the suicidal thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are part of depression for many people?
The team are currently recruiting and are keen to hear from people who may be interested in taking part. Call Freephone 0800 1216065 or email Staying-well@bangor.ac.uk.
By Mariel Jones, Regional Trial Recruiter, Staying Well after Depression.
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