By Sade Adewale, Ondo

A Consultant, Dr Joshua Falade has described depression as one of the major psychiatric conditions that needs to be addressed properly.
He stated this during a public lecture tagged” Depression: A Silent killer” held at Trauma Centre Conference room, University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Ondo.
Falade added that one out of five people in the country has the illness, because of the social economic and security instability.
He said depression is caused by abnormal mood saying 50 percent of depressed patients are missed, 10percent are subsequently recognized and 40percent remains unrecognized in the society.
According to him, some of the symptoms of depression include excessive sadness, excessive tiredness, loss of interest in pleasurable activities which is common in young adults and adolescents, psychomotor retadation , pessimism, thought of suicide, sleep abnormality, poor appetite, reduce sexual drive, crawling sensation among others.
Falade noted that some risk factors that lead to depression were stressful events, lack of social support, physical illness and genetic factor.
Also, he said impaired work ability can cause depression, poor social functioning, missed diagnosis were the main reasons why depression was a silent killer.
He said when all these were noticed for mild depression; psychotherapy and social therapy should be done, while urging mental health doctors to always listen to their patients and not interrupt when counseling.
The Consultant further explained that if depression was not properly handled, it would cause damage to the body said drugs and physical treatment.
Falade noted that to tackle depression, we should always talk about our problems to expert that will give better advised in order rather than bottle it up.
The consultant also said positive appraisal was also a good way of tackling depression, adding that people should always believe in and not look down on themselves.
He, therefore, said that depression was a common psychological illness, saying relevant stakeholders must work towards its prevention and treatment .
The CMAC, Dr Micheal Gbala said that the lecture came at the right time, saying it would be a great benefit to people that are moody at all times.
Gbala stated that almost everyone was affected by depression, there were a lot of suicidal and depressed people out there that could be sensitized.
According to him, lack of knowledge and awareness were also reasons depression was high in the society.
He said depression could be very dangerous, and if noticed, we should locate and help and not to stigmatize them.