Rationale: Depression is a common mental disorder and one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Major depressive disorder is the psychiatric diagnosis most commonly associated with suicidal thoughts. Patients with major depressive disorder have up to a twenty-fold higher risk of attempted suicides compared with the general population. The interval between the onset of suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempts is often very short, highlighting the need for urgent intervention in the development of new antidepressants with a rapid onset of action. Despite advances in medical treatment options, up to a third of patients treated for major depression do not respond satisfactorily, with poor prognosis during follow up. In the UK, there are no approved medications for the emergency treatment of patients with major depression assessed to be at risk of imminent suicide.
The overlap in the population of patients with major depressive disorders, treatment resistant depression and suicidal thoughts is not well characterized. Such background characterization of the prevalence, sociodemographic, clinical and mental health characteristics of major depressive disorder and treatment resistant disorder is essential to support the development of new treatments as well as to broaden the understanding of these category of mental health problems.
Aim: In this project, we propose to conduct a descriptive epidemiologicaly study – characterizing the disease burden of major depressive disorder, treatment resistant depression and suicidal thoughtsideation. We aim to understand the characteristics of the population of participants with major depressive disordersMDD, treatment resistant depressionTRD, and suicidal thoughts and SI the overlap between these conditions within the UK Biobank to support the development of new treatments..
Project Duration: This project will last for 12 months.
Public Health Impact: Major depressive disorder, treatment resistant depression and suicidal thoughts represent a group of mental health conditions that that pose substantial treatment challenges. Of the nearly 300 million people who suffer from major depressive disorder worldwide, about one third do not respond to currently available drugs. This represents a major unmet ned. As a group, they cause substantial increase in the morbidity, health care resource utilization and mortality, with very few treatment options. The burden of these conditions in the UK is not well characterized. The overall public health impact of the results from this project will provide useful background information that would be essential to the development of strategies and the introduction of new treatments that may be useful in treating depression and depressive symptoms.