Ecuador: Rate of Depression in Relation to other countries in Latin America

redaccionmedica.ec (machine translated) reported a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that Ecuador is the eleventh country with the most cases of depression and the tenth for cases of anxiety disorders in Latin America.

According to the WHO, Brazil is the country with the highest number of cases of depression in Latin America, with a prevalence of 5.8 percent; Followed by Cuba with 5.5 percent; Paraguay with 5.2; Chile and Uruguay with 5; Peru with 4.8; Argentina , Colombia , Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic with 4.7; Ecuador with 4.6; Bolivia , El Salvador and Panama with 4.4; Mexico , Nicaragua and Venezuela with 4.2; Honduras with 4 and Guatemala with 3.7.

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The WHO has noted that in the last decade and worldwide, people with depression have increased by 18 percent while those with anxiety disorders have increased by 15 percent. “At least 322 million people in the world suffer from depression and another 264 million suffer from anxiety disorders,” he said in his report.

Likewise, the infomre indicates that the tendency to suffer mental disorders is increasing, especially in the countries of low and middle income, since the population increases and the life expectancy also. In fact, the prevalence is higher in adulthood: 7.5 percent of women between the ages of 55 and 74 suffer from depression while 5.5 percent of men of the same age suffer from the condition.

For the WHO, depression is the disease that contributes most to disability in the world (7.5 percent) while anxiety disorders is the sixth disease (3.4 percent). In addition, depression is the number one cause among suicide deaths: 800,000 a year.

Anxiety Disorders

The WHO has reported that in relation to anxiety disorders have increased by 14.9 percent, compared to 2005. It is currently estimated that 3.6 percent of the world’s population suffered in 2015.

As indicated this pathology occurs more in women (4.6 percent) than in men (2.6 percent). In the Americas region, it is estimated that 7.7 percent of women suffer from anxiety while men account for 3.6 percent.

In this sense, Brazil is the country of Latin America that more cases of anxiety disorders , has a 9.3 percent; Followed by Paraguay with 7.6; Chile with 6.5; Uruguay with 6.4; Argentina with 6.3; Cuba with 6.1, Colombia with 5.8; Peru and the Dominican Republic with 5.7; Ecuador with 5.6; Bolivia with 5.4; Costa Rica and El Salvador with 4.6; Nicaragua and Panama with 4.5; Venezuela with 4.4; Honduras with 4.3; Guatemala with 4.2 and Mexico with 3.6. Read Full Article