More than a quarter of people reported a lifetime diagnosis of depression in West Virginia in 2020, a shocking new study has revealed.
The state is the most depressed compared to the least, Hawaii, where just 12.7 percent of the population reported having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their life.
The alarming data, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), demonstrates the wide geographical disparity for depression in American adults.
Researchers believe that depression is higher in states such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama due to the prevalence of other chronic diseases such as diabetes as well as other social factors, including poverty.
The study, compiled from nearly 400,000 adults across the 50 states, found that overall 18.4 percent of US adults had been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime.
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‘There was considerable geographic variation in the prevalence of depression, with the highest state and county estimates of depression observed along the Appalachian and southern Mississippi Valley regions,’ researchers wrote in the report.
The researchers said they hoped the new data would ‘help decision-makers guide resource allocation to areas where the need is greatest.’
In Kentucky one in four respondents said they had been diagnosed with depression at some point their life.
Similarly more than 24 percent of those asked in Tennessee reported a lifetime depression diagnosis.
The researchers suggested that the geographical variation may in part be explained by the prevalence of other chronic diseases.
Chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, and cardiovascular diseases, occur in high concentration in the Appalachian region, where depression is also high.
They argue that depression is a comorbidity for these illnesses and therefore high levels of depression is linked to their presence in the region.
Other social factors were also cited as an explanation for high levels of depression.
24 percent of women, compared with just 13 percent of men reported having experienced depression
The study found that overall 18.4 percent of US adults had been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime
Adults in the Appalachian region tend to have lower incomes, higher poverty rates, and lower education levels, all of which can negatively affect health and well-being, according to the study.
The results also showed that levels of depression were higher with women, younger adults and adults with lower education levels.
24 percent of women, compared with just 13 percent of men reported having experienced depression.
The statistics were also higher among adults who had attained less than a high school education, 21 percent, compared with with adults with a high school education or equivalent, 18.5 percent. Those with college degrees fared best, with 15.4 percent reporting a diagnosis.
Other recent reports have shown a jump in Americans reporting lifetime depression diagnoses in recent years.
Gallup reported in May that 29 percent of Americans had been diagnosed with depression at some point, which was nearly 10 percent more than in 2015.
‘The fact that Americans are more depressed and struggling after this time of incredible stress and isolation is perhaps not surprising,’ Dr. Rebecca Brendel, president of the American Psychiatric Association said.
‘There are lingering effects on our health, especially our mental health, from the past three years that disrupted everything we knew’ Brendel, who was not involved in the CDC study, added.
