FOR RELEASE: SEPTEMBER, 1997
CONTACT: Joelle Reizes, 617-239-0071
ONE IN FIVE WOMEN, ONE IN TEN MEN ARE VICTIMS OF DEPRESSION; NATIONAL DEPRESSION SCREENING DAY TO TAKE PLACE OCTOBER 9, 1997
You feel bad in the morning. Better in the afternoon. You wake at 3 a.m. but want to sleep all the time. You've lost interest in food, sex, and the things that used to make life worth living. You're sad, unhappy, anxious. These symptoms last for weeks, months. More time goes by, nothing improves. Time slows down and minutes seem like hours. Gradually, you begin to feel the world might be better off without you. An alarming one in five women and one in ten men will feel this way over the course of their lifetimes. They aren't lazy and they aren't making it up. They have an illness. They have depression. Compare these statistics to the one in nine women who develop breast cancer and the one in twelve men who develop lung cancer and you get a glimpse of the shocking and hidden toll this crippling illness is taking. In the landmark study, "The Global Burden of Disease," researchers found that clinical depression will be the second-most burdensome illness in the world by the year 2020. There is hope and there is help. Treatment is effective in 80-90% of all cases in as little as 6 to 8 weeks. The challenge is getting people into treatment. Many feel shame and stigma. Others do not know where to turn. Some, like Philip Phillips, find help in an annual free screening program, National Depression Screening Day. "If it was not for the screening day I don't know if I'd be here today," says Phillips. "I would urge anyone who feels that they may have depression to take advantage of the screening. It saved my life, and I know it can do the same for others." National Depression Screening Day, a keynote event during Mental Illness Awareness Week, has attracted nearly 350,000 people over the last six years. Interested participants can go to one of more than 3000 screening sites on October 9, 1997. To locate the closest site, call 1-800-573-4433 or visit the on-line site locator at www.nmisp.org. All screenings are free and anonymous. Attendees at the screening programs hear an educational session on depression, complete a written screening test, discuss the results with a mental health professional, and learn where to go for additional help if necessary.
"The screening saved my life. I was constantly fighting thoughts of suicide and every time I drove, I physically battled my arms not to go into a tree. The screening turned my life around. I found there was a name for what I was experiencing and I was glad I wasn't going crazy," says a patient who attended a screening last year. National Depression Screening Day is a program of the nonprofit National Mental Illness Screening Project. Sponsors include the American Psychiatric Assn., National Institute of Mental Health, McLean Hospital, National Depressive and Manic Depressive Assn., National Mental Health Assn., National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems. National Depression Screening Day is supported in part by an educational grant from Eli Lilly & Company.
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