Is India Least Depressed Country?

India has the least number of antidepressant users per 1,000 people with only 9. This was revealed in the data collected by the statistical organization World Of Statistics.

Iceland tops the list with 161 users followed by Portugal (139) and Canada (130). World Of Statistics has participants that range from national and international statistical societies, institutes and colleges.

The data for India gives the idea that it is the least depressed nation in the world. But is it so?

Depression is one of the most stigmatized medical conditions in society. In India, the awareness of mental health issues is very poor. People, more often than not, do not report cases of mental health diseases. There have been instances of people shifting to self-proclaimed healers to treat episodes of mania and schizophrenia.

Depression is something that is not considered a disease by a big part of the population as it cannot be diagnosed by any lab reports. Hence, it leads to poor treatment.

The data might be collected with all the scientific methods and precautions but it could not be labeled as the absolute one as it doesn’t take account of the unreported cases.