You asked:
I am looking to see how many adults are diagnosed with depression in the UK year-on-year. I have included some specifics below:
- Adults, aged over 18 (all genders) clinically diagnosed with depression each year (between 2007 - to date)
- Excluding post natal/antenatal depression
- Ideally I am looking for clinically diagnosed depression, though self reported will suffice if there are no statistics
We said:
Thank you for your request.
We do not collect data on clinically diagnosed cases of depression.
As part of the Measuring National Well-being programme, we report on the "Percentage of those in the UK with some evidence indicating depression or anxiety". This is measured through the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and is collected on Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study. GHQ-12 asks respondents 12 questions about their recent feelings. These questions are then scored and added together with the total score ranging from a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 12. A score of four or more indicates that the individual may have symptoms of mild to moderate illness such as anxiety or depression. This information is provided as percentage of respondents who have a score of 4 or more at the UK level. The most recent time period available is for 2014 - 2015.
Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study is not carried out by us, but the data are available from the UK Data Service under varying licensing agreements.
Information relating to depression is also available from Public Health England.