6 ms·
Plus the Japanese diet tastes better than a fish oil gel cap ... speaking of which, does this mean that the incidence of depression in Japan is low?
by irishjohnnie 13y ago
Plus the Japanese diet tastes better than a fish oil gel cap ... speaking of which, does this mean that the incidence of depression in Japan is low?
- gms7777 13y agoWell, according to this article about a recent study: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/11/07/a-stunning-map-of-depression-rates-around-the-world/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/11/07... Japan has the lowest rate of diagnosed cases of depression of any country in the world (<2.5%). Of course, there could be other causes for this, and the accuracy of how well the diagnosed rate represents the actual rate is an open question. In particular, in east asian countries thre seems to be a cultural taboo against admitting mental illness and seeking treatment in order to get diagnosed in the first place. The fact that Japan has one of the highest suicide rates of any country in the world is an especially telling statistic that the diagnosed rate may not be telling us everything.
- saraid216 13y agoA healthy diet is really not a remotely sufficient substitute for a healthy social context. One of the reasons there's a link at all is because we often eat with people.
- hcarvalhoalves 13y agoIt may not be that deterministic, as if it's either diet or social context. One thing can feed on the other. It can start as an emotional response, deflagrating an inflammatory process, revealing the nutritional deficiency. Or it can start with a nutritional deficiency, deflagrating an inflammatory process, which the brains reads as depression. This mechanism is already seen regarding stress and magnesium. High stress -> Mg depletion. Low Mg -> Stress symptoms.
- joyeuse6701 13y agoI wonder if we can make the assumption that a suicide must have come from depression. Or at least, I'm not sure if the reasons/depressions experienced in Japan are comparable to other countries. I'd also agree that the admittance of mental illness may be lower than the actual. There are some pretty strange conditions out there, like hikikimori.
- gms7777 13y agoRight, I'm not saying that suicide necessarily comes exclusively from depression. Obviously there are other cultural factors at play in Japan that may lead to higher suicide rates. Just that the massive discrepancy between suicide rates and diagnosed depression rates is suggestive of the fact that the actual depression is at least somewhat higher than what we see.
- ekianjo 13y agoI work in the pharma industry in Japan and I can confirm that depression is massively under-diagnosed, and that the market for depression treatment is expected to boom in the coming years. So much, that they are now doing TV campaigns to encourage people to be diagnosed. So yeah, don't count on the current statistics to tell you anything significant, there are many cultural barriers at play in Japan, just like for many other aspects of the Japanese life.
- atgm 13y ago> I work in the pharma industry in Japan I wonder if we've crossed paths in some way before. I also work in the pharma industry (peripherally?).