Depression: An Epidemic in Sikkim

INTRODUCTION: Depression is a common medical problem which is affecting people of all ages, genders, different socioeconomic groups, and religions in India and all over the world. If left untreated, it can lead to suicidal tendency followed by death. The second leading cause of death today among children and adolescents is suicide and youth suicide has become a significant public health problem. Various kinds of behavioral pattern of the people such as ideation, attempt to suicide can lead to death. So it can be considered as an intricate and multifactorial phenomenon. Along with many of the known risk factors like psychiatric disorders, instability, and drug abuse, depression is the one of the serious mental illnesses which is commonly associated with the suicidal tendency. AIM: To assess the level of prevalence of depression and associated symptoms, this cross-sectional study was done in Sikkim among 982 individuals. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The questionnaire based study consisted of 421 (42.88%) males and 561 (57.12%) females. RESULTS: A statistically significant(p =0.001) relation was found between depressive disorder among males and unemployment. However, Depression among females was attributed to marriage-related problems and affairs. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need to develop health education packages to avert this public health problem.