Depression is not adequately treated

Depression is often treated inadequately

03/16/2014

Three out of four depressed people in Germany receive inadequate treatment. This emerges from a recent study by the Bertelsmann Foundation. In addition, many patients receive psychotropic drugs, although they do not need it.

Three out of four patients not adequately treated
a „mirror“-According to the report, three out of four seriously ill depressive people in Germany are not adequately cared for. The magazine refers to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation with data from 84 company and guild health insurance funds. Of the severely depressed, 56 percent would not be sufficiently treated and 18 percent would not be treated at all. According to the report, "12 percent of patients with mild symptoms receive psychotropic drugs, although this is not medically indicated." According to the Bertelsmann Foundation „a trend to recognize that with age, there is a potential over-use of antidepressants in mild depression.“ As the magazine further reported, elderly people with mental disorders would have little access to a psychotherapist.

Older people are less likely to receive psychotherapy
In addition, it was reported that according to unpublished figures of the Barmer GEK, of the female insured at the age of 35 years five percent would get psychotherapy, of the 70-year-old, however, only 0.8 percent. The magazine quoted the head of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital Leipzig, Ulrich Hegerl: „There is a risk that young people with mild disorders will get to the treatment sites more quickly than people with severe disorders.“ According to the German Depressions Aid Foundation, about one in five Germans suffer from depression once in their lives. Altogether, there are approximately four million people in Germany who are suffering from treatment-related depression. (Ad)

Image: Jorma Bork