Depression hits young women
YOUNG Australian women are making more claims for anti-depressants than any other medicine as depression takes hold of a new generation.
A new Women’s Health Australia study suggests women aged 28 to 33 are in poorer mental health than their mothers or grandmothers, with almost one in five reporting a diagnosis of depression by a doctor.
The search for answers in prescription medicines has had young women making about seven claims for anti-depressants a year against the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and spending $113 a year out of their own pockets on treatment.
They reported higher rates of depression (18 per cent) than women aged 53 to 58 (13 per cent) and those aged 79 to 84 (10 per cent).
But the younger women were slower to look to medication for help than older women diagnosed with the same condition.
Study co-author Julie Byles from the University of Newcastle said the data understated the problem, given that 60 per cent of young women with depression were not on antidepressants. “It’s only the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
The release of the study, funded by the federal Health Department, coincided with Labor’s pledge to develop a new women’s health strategy, to be completed in 2010. Consultations on a men’s health strategy, also an election