A big number of patients who suffer from Chronic diseases like Cancer, Diabetes, Heart diseases and HIV also suffer from depression.
“People who are living with chronic physical health conditions experience conditions at twice the rate of the general population. Co- existing mental and physical conditions can diminish the quality of life and lead to longer illness duration and worse health outcomes,” Head of Quality and Standards at the Ministry of Health
Pafica
Onyacha
said on Friday.
WHO ranked Kenya as the 6th country with the highest number of depression cases in
Africa.
Onyacha spoke in Nairobi during the World Health Day celebrations.
The theme for this year was depression.
He said 1.9 million depression cases were reported in 2016.
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Data from the Health ministry also shows that 10.8 per cent of women are affected by depressive disorders as compared to 3.8 per cent of men.
WHO estimates show that Kenya’s prevalence to these two conditions stands at 4.4 per cent and 3.1 per cent respectively.
Depression is an illness characterised by persistent sadness, loss of interest in activities that one normally enjoys among others for at least two weeks.
“When a person has been diagnosed with depression, it can cause mental anguish and impact on the persons’ ability to carry out even the simplest everyday tasks. This can sometimes have devastating consequences for relationships with family and friends and the ability to earn a living,” Onyacha added.
Persons who are depressed lose up to six hours of productive time at work per week compared to 1.6 hours in non-depressed workers.
“Despite the presence of evidence-based and effective psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for depression many individuals with the condition never receive treatment consequently exacerbating an already serious situation,” he
said.
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Psychiatrist and head of mental health advocate at the Ministry of Health Fred Chitayi
pointed out the need to have constant awareness on matters public health.
“Mental health is a topic that is often stigmatised by the society. Some people also do not believe that one can have a mental problem. Others find other ways of dealing with the depression either such drinking alcohol which is not the best way,” Chitayi said.
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