Depression said to affect 200,000 in State

Over 200,000 Irish people are affected by depression, a factor which has been linked with up to 400 suicides committed in this State each year, according to the makers of a new anti-depressant drug.

At the launch of the drug in Tipperary on Saturday, Dr Patrick McKeon, chairman of Aware, the support group for people suffering from depression, said the illness is a potentially life-threatening one which is predicted to be second only to heart disease as a cause of "lost years of healthy life", by 2020. It is estimated to cost the economy £280 million annually.

Dr McKeon said the illness was more than customary sadness or feeling unhappy. It is a persistent low mood, sleep, appetite and weight loss, poor interest and concentration and either crying a lot, or being unable to cry at all. It is thought to be linked to abnormal levels of certain chemicals in the brain called noradrenaline and serotonin.

Dr McKeon, who is a consultant psychiatrist at St Patrick's Hospital in Dublin, also said that because of under-diagnosis "we are not seeing the true figures".

"It is very difficult for GPs to recognise the symptoms for depression from the diverse and miscellaneous problems set out by patients. Approximately 10 percent of general practice attendees have major depression and one third have some form of psychiatric morbidity," he said.