Now that Mental Health Awareness Week has drawn to a close, it is imperative that the conversations around mental health continues and grows.
Today marks the end of Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK, which has successfully sparked many conversations around the prevalence, treatment and stigma around the UK’s spectrum of mental health conditions, ranging from depression and anxiety to OCD.
But the conversation cannot stop. It is reported that one in five Brits suffer from symptoms of depression and the OECD has reported that mental illness costs the economy a staggering £94 billion annually.
With the number of adults suffering from mental health conditions and it being such a cost to the UK economy, we need to ask if the current mainstream treatments are working?
Research highlighting that the conversation is just beginning
Depression treatment specialists, Smart TMS, unveils exclusive research on the nation’s attitudes towards depression, mental health and its treatments.
The exclusive research found the following:
- 25% (11.4 million Brits) have experienced symptoms of what they think is undiagnosed depression for many years;
- 25% (11.4 million Brits) think the best thing their GP could do for the treatment of depression is to provide effective alternatives to prescription medication;
- 22% (10.7 million Brits) sometimes wonder if they are suffering from undiagnosed depression, as activities that used to make them happy do not make them happy anymore;
- 14% (6.7 million Brits) have left a long-term mental health issue untreated over many years in order to avoid prescription drugs;
- 10% (4.2 million Brits) would pay over £2,000 to receive an innovative treatment for their mental health issue;
- 15% (7.3 million Brits) have used anti-depressants but they have not helped their mental health at all, or if they did, it was sporadic;
- 14% (7 million Brits) have taken prescription medication for depression before and the side effects alone (e.g. insomnia, drowsiness) have dissuaded them from using them again;
- 12% (5.7 million Brits) had to stop using anti-depressants because they found them ineffective or they had negative side effects; and
- 6% (3.2 million Brits) think that prescribed anti-depressants have stopped them from doing their job properly or stopped them from working all together.
