Call to Action: Raising Awareness and Improving Diagnosis of Depression
The alarming results of the ‘Depression: The Painful Truth’ Survey prompted the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) to call a meeting of experts from different areas of psychiatry – leading doctors and patient advocates – in the summer of 2005 to discuss new ways of improving the diagnosis of depression and increasing understanding of the disease. The meeting was sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company and Boehringer Ingelheim.
The experts reviewed current research and recent surveys, and shared their clinical and regional insights in order to develop a consensus statement and action plan designed to tackle unmet needs in depression and improve the lives of people with depression around the world.
Key consensus points
- It is important to increase awareness of all symptoms of depression, including painful physical symptoms related to depression, among the general public in order to encourage affected individuals to seek professional help early on and help them present their symptoms to their primary care physician
- It is important to improve the education that primary care physicians receive about depression, especially in medical schools, to help ensure that they diagnose depression accurately. This will ensure people with depression, talking to their doctors about persistent painful symptoms without clear medical cause, are evaluated for depression
The expert group also called for specific action items in 2006, including development of this Web site; bringing together international patient advocacy groups to discuss programs to address the consensus points; hosting a ‘Depression Monologues’ media workshop to highlight the impact depression has on women; and conducting a survey to better understand and highlight the gaps between depression education and real-world clinical practice.
The Call to Action is endorsed by the following panel of international experts
- Prof. Michael Bauer (Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Germany)
- Gabriela Camara (Voz Pro Salud Mental, Mexico)
- Dr. Adriano Camargo (ABRATA, Brazil)
- Dr. Ricardo Colin (Instituto Nacional de Neurologia y Neurocirugia, Mexico)
- Dr. Vincenzo Costigliola (European Medical Association, Belgium)
- Dr. Marc-Antoine Crocq (Centre Hospitalier de Rouffach, France)
- Prof. Pedro Delgado (University of Texas, USA)
- Dr. Patt Franciosi (World Federation for Mental Health)
- Preston Garrison (World Federation for Mental Health)
- Margit Golfels (TriaLogisch e.V. / Hilfe für psychisch Kranke Bonn/Rhein-Sieg e.V., etc., Germany)
- Amelia Mustapha (European Depression Association)
- Prof. Robert Peveler (University of Southampton, UK)