Dharmawangsa Psychiatric Hospital director Richard Budiman said people with depression experience constant and uncontrollable anxiety, which might make a bad impact on their daily lives if they do not receive proper mental healthcare services.

“Thirty-one percent of patients with anxiety symptoms are diagnosed with depression,” he said during a press conference in South Jakarta on Wednesday.

Richard said a better understanding of depressive disorders and how best to treat them was the beginning of the improvement of mental health services.

The 2013 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) said 14 million people aged 15 years or older, 6 percent of the total Indonesian population, have experienced mental and emotional disorders that present with depression and anxiety .

Almost 800,000 people commit suicide every year because of depression, making it the second most common cause of death for people between 15 and 29 years old.

Richard said antidepressant medications could help patients live healthy and productive lives. He said one of the many drugs doctors could prescribe to a patient was called escitalopram.

“It is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class with faster acceptability and efficacy as an anti-anxiety drug.” (dis/ebf)

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