Depression Too long waits on medical appointments

First patient congress on depression: patients have to wait too long for therapy sessions

03/10/2011

The Foundation German Depressionshilfe and the German Depressionsliga have organized the first German Patients' Congress Depression in Leipzig. During the event, the experts complained, among other things, that sufferers often have to wait far too long for an appointment with a specialist or psychologist.

As the chairman of the foundation Deutsche Depressionshilfe, Ulrich Hegerl, emphasized, the sometimes months-long waiting periods in the interest of those affected are completely unacceptable. Nobody, who is looking for support because of his psychological problems, should have to wait so long for a doctor's appointment, criticized the expert at the congress in Leipzig. Fast medical help must generally be guaranteed in the event of a life-threatening illness. As a patron of the first patient conference on the topic of depression was the well-known entertainer and comedian Harald Schmidt. In total, over 1,000 visitors accepted the invitation to the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

Depression is the focus of public discussion
The first German Congress on Depression was designed to provide those concerned and their relatives with an opportunity to share and share information, with presentations by relatives, doctors and patients as well as a panel discussion and workshops. Although the topic of depression since the suicide of the former goalkeeper of the national football team, Robert Enke, almost two years ago in the public experienced a noticeable increased interest, but even today, there is still a significant need for information, according to the experts at the patient congress in Leipzig. The focus of the congress was on the different causes of depressive illness, their symptoms and the existing treatment options. As depression is also a significant challenge to family members and friends of those affected, various workshops also looked at the options that family members have to help depressed patients in their environment. As the Saxon state health minister Christine Clauß emphasized at the opening of the patient congress, the current event also contributes to bringing the issue of depression back into the focus of public discussion.

Four million depression patients throughout Germany
The German Depressionshilfe Foundation estimates that currently around four million people in Germany suffer from depression, making mental illness one of the most widespread diseases in Germany. Approximately five percent of the population, the Foundation German Depressionshilfe according to the typical symptoms of depression such as mood swings, listlessness, fatigue, sleep disorders or feelings of guilt. As the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI) already noted in a representative study on behalf of the Allianz health insurance in April of this year, depression is the main cause of incapacity for work and early retirement, bringing with it economic costs of 22 billion euros per year. About every tenth German suffers at least once in the course of his life from depression, the experts also emphasized at the current patient congress. As explained by the Chairman of the Executive Board of the German Depressionshilfe, Ulrich Hegerl, depression can have many different causes. For example, in the professional world, stress, metabolic disorders but also genetic predispositions are considered as possible causes of the disease. A typical symptom of depression is Ulrich Hegerl „the feeling of being overwhelmed and overburdened“, which accompanies every depression. Although stress may favor the onset of depression, the disease usually has little to do with pressure to perform. Depression does not only hit stressed people and also the supposed relaxation through vacation or a break from work hardly help, „because the depression goes with it“, stressed Hegerl.

Although new horror news about a massive increase of depressive illnesses are published by the health insurance companies every year, the experts at the patient congress were convinced that the number of people with depressive illnesses had barely risen overall. Only the number of appropriate diagnoses is increasing as more and more sufferers seek professional help. In the past, depression was often not diagnosed as such, but hidden behind alternative diagnoses, explained Ulrich Hegerl. According to the chairman of the German Depressionshilfe, the positive development in the treatment of depression is also reflected in the suicide statistics, because in the past 30 years the number of depression-related suicides has fallen from 18,000 to 9,600. While they are „still around 30 people a day, but it's a sensational improvement“, emphasized Hegerl.

No universal solution for the treatment of depression
Despite the numerous treatment options, however, not all affected people can be helped to this day. Depending on the severity of the depression and the possible causes of various treatment methods are used, the difficulty is often mainly in the selection of the right treatment approach. In the past, promising results have already been achieved with traditional medicine as well as naturopathic treatments. A universal therapy option with which all depression patients could be treated, however, is not yet available, so that the specialist is required at this point to determine appropriate treatment approaches. The fact that patients sometimes have to wait for months for an appointment is therefore not tolerable, according to the experts at the first patient congress. (Fp)

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