Britons are among most depressed in the West

PEOPLE in the UK are among the most depressed in the developed world as they grapple with problems such as job dissatisfaction, according to international rankings.

Britain is ranked joint seventh out of 25 countries for adults reporting that they have the debilitating condition – more than double the rates in countries including Poland, Greece and Slovakia.

The data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that women are more likely than men to report having the condition – a trend reflected across other countries.

Depression levels also vary according to the level of education achieved, with those going on to higher education reporting lower rates than adults who left school at 16. The OECD, which has 35 members, most of them developed countries, analysed data for 25 to 64-year-olds from European health interview survey results and other surveys.

It found that 10 per cent of this age group in the UK suffered from depression in 2014 – two percentage points above the average for countries that had data available. Sweden was also on 10 per cent.

Only 4 per cent of people in the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, Italy and Slovakia reported depression. The country with the highest levels was Iceland, at 14 per cent.

In the UK, depression rates ranged from 15 per cent for those who left school after GCSEs (12 per cent on average across the countries studied) to 7 per cent for university-educated adults (6 per cent on average).

Eleven per cent of women in the UK reported suffering from depression compared with 8 per cent of men. The average across countries was 10 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Andreas Schleicher, of the OECD, said there are ‘good reasons to believe that education has a direct effect’ on depression levels.

‘With higher levels of education you have so many more ways to participate in society,’ he said.

The relationship between ‘ almost all social outcomes and education is stronger in the UK than it is on average across countries’, he added.

‘It could have something to do with the education itself, it could have something to do with employment – people with poor qualifications get the kind of jobs that really make you disaffected,’ he said.

Dr Cosmo Hallstrom, from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: ‘Depression is more common among people who are socially deprived.

‘If you’re poor and uneducated and you live on the top of a high rise, without a partner and you’ve got children to care for, unsupported and on no money, then you’re more likely to be depressed than if you have a good lifestyle, a supportive family relationship and good education.’

Depression is is largely treated by restoring feel-good chemicals in the brain. Last year the NHS issued 64.7million prescriptions for antidepressants, double the amount given out a decade ago.

‘Jobs that make you disaffected’