How Common Is Depression?

Dr. Madhukar Trivedi answers the question: How Common Is Depression?'

By
Madhukar Trivedi, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, UT Southwestern Medical School
May 1, 2008, 5:59 PM ET
1 min read

— -- Question: How common is depression?

Answer: Depression is a very common illness and depression affects one in seven to eight Americans every year. Patients with depressive disorders have an illness that starts early in life -- most often it starts either in the adolescent years, or in their twenties, and it is a lifetime of an illness in a lot of patients.

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