Prevalence of depression in Spain: Analysis of the last 15 years

Abstract

Depression in Spain in recent years has become an important problem of public health which is the cause of heavy government healthcare spending. The various depressive disorders have commonly been associated with other psychopathological disorders, especially anxiety, and with physical diseases. Its prevalence varied depending on the study because of the characteristics of the samples, the instruments used or the type of disorder studied. A systematic review was done in several national and international databases, in which a total of 63 publications were found, with only nine remaining after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data analyzed concerning the nine publications use a diversity of samples: patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, university students, children clinical population, preschool children, elderly population, general population, hospitalized patients and smokers. The data on prevalence varied in the studies examined from 1.12% in preschool children, 8.56% in the general population and up to 55.6% in university students. After analysis of results, a constant pattern was observed in gender with a higher proportion of women who suffer from depression), although the data on prevalence varied from one study to another and their comparison was complicated.