Women, people with a family history of depression, those who've experienced trauma or severe stress (like abuse or loss), individuals with chronic illnesses, and those with certain personality traits (pessimism, low self-esteem) or without strong social connections are at elevated risk for major depression. Depression often emerges in young to middle adulthood (20s-40s), but can affect anyone.
Depression can happen to anyone. People who have lived through abuse, severe losses or other stressful events are more likely to develop depression. Women are more likely to have depression than men.
Depression prevalence decreased with increasing age. Overall, prevalence was highest in adolescents ages 12–19 (19.2%) and lowest in adults age 60 and older (8.7%). A similar trend was observed in females, where depression decreased from 26.5% among those ages 12–19 to 10.6% among those age 60 and older.
Depression prevalence varies by age, and the total percentage of adults with depression is the highest among those aged 18–29 years old (Villarroel and Terlizzi, 2020).
Socially stressful and traumatic life events, limited access to resources such as food, housing, and health care, and a lack of social support all contribute to depression risk.
Those who have a history of more than one adverse childhood experience are at an even higher risk. Major depressive disorder rates are higher among individuals who are divorced, separated, and widowed (Navneet & Abdijadid, 2022). There is a genetic component to major depressive disorder.
Women are more likely than men and younger adults are more likely than older adults to experience depression. While depression can occur at any time and at any age, on average it can first appear during one's late teens to mid-20s. Feeling sad, irritable, empty and/or hopeless.
Stress, anxiety and feeling down can affect anyone, and happens to a lot of us at some point in our lives. Over 75% of mental health issues occur before the age of 25, while suicide continues to cause the largest loss of life of young people in Australia.
Research by the Walton Family Foundation states that 42% of Gen Zers struggle with depression and feelings of hopelessness, which is nearly twice the rate of people over the age of 25, at 23%.
It's thought that your chance of getting severe depression may be partly affected by the genes you inherit from your parents.
1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England [1]. 1 in 5 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (like anxiety and depression) in any given week in England [2].
MEDICINE MOST STRESSFUL MAJOR
Students studying in medicine-related fields led the pack. Right behind them were the law, social work, and engineering majors.
Researchers discovered severe depression is significantly higher in those who are Black, Hispanic, or of multiple or unspecified races compared to non-Hispanic white people. Specifically, Black and Hispanic participants reported higher levels of: sadness. inability to experience pleasure (anhedonia)
Causes and Risk Factors
Women are about twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with depression. You're also more likely to develop depression if you are between ages 45 and 64, nonwhite, or divorced, and if you never graduated high school, can't work or are unemployed, and don't have health insurance.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and American Academy of Family Physicians recommend screening for depression in the general adult population. Additionally, the USPSTF recommends screening children and adolescents 12 to 18 years of age for major depressive disorder.
The prevalence increases at higher latitudes with SAD being more common in people living far from the equator where there are fewer daylight hours in the winter. Younger people and women are also at higher risk. SAD has been linked to changes in the brain prompted by shorter daylight hours and less sunlight in winter.
The average age of onset for major depressive disorder is between 35 and 40 years of age. Onset in early adulthood may be linked with more depressive episodes, a longer duration of illness, and therefore a more difficult clinical course.
Baby Boomers and Gen X are around twice as likely as Millennials and Gen Z to say youth mental health problems have increased because young people today are less resilient.
Mental health is still a big issue for Gen Z. They're the most likely generation to say they're prone to anxiety (28% say this) and to report that social media stresses them out (18% say this). Since 2020, there's been a 25% rise in Gen Z reporting a mental health condition.
Women consistently report more depressive symptoms than men, while adolescents, young adults, and older adults tend to experience more depressive symptoms than their middle-aged adult counterparts [9–10].
Consistent with this, laboratory-based studies of age differences in risk behavior allude to a peak in adolescence, suggesting that adolescents demonstrate a heightened propensity, or inherent inclination, to take risks.
Key points. Older adults often face health challenges and life changes that may put them at greater risk for depression. But depression is not a normal part of aging. It is a treatable condition that requires medical attention.
Depression is more common in persons with medical illnesses, with 11% to 36% of general medical inpatients fulfilling diagnostic criteria for MDD [10,11,12,13]. Depression also is two to three times more likely in individuals with chronic diseases, including diabetes, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases [14]. 2 .
Depression presents differently across age groups.
Their study found that “vegetative symptoms”—like appetite and weight change, loss of energy, and insomnia—were more commonly seen in adolescent depression than adult depression.