Damian Santomauro from the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and colleagues from Australia, the US and Switzerland conducted a global assessment of care for people with major depressive disorder (MDD) in 2021 across 204 countries and territories and concluded that less than one in ten patients receive adequate treatment. To make the assessment, the authors conducted a meta-regression analysis of existing studies and GBD datasets. Minimally adequate treatment was considered as pharmacotherapy (a month of medication plus four visits to a doctor) or psychotherapy (eight visits to any accredited specialist). The results are published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
The assessment found that in 2021, only 9.1 percent of patients with MDD received minimally adequate treatment globally—10.2 percent of women and 7.2 percent of men. Treatment coverage was highest in high-income countries (27.0 percent), and geographically in Australasia (29.2 percent). The lowest rates were in sub-Saharan Africa (2.0 percent), especially in Western Africa (1.8 percent). Seven countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden) had coverage above 30 percent, while 90 countries had coverage below five percent.