Essay On Epidemiology And Prevalence

9) DISCUSSIONS

Epidemiology and prevalence

Depression is common mental disorder throughout the world. According to National Institute of Mental Health, it is a prevailing yet serious illness that we can never ignore. World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people living with depression and it causes global dysfunction. In Malaysia, depression is one of the common mental illness influencing approximately 2.3 million citizens at some points in their lives, still this illness remains untreated and undetected (Mukhtar & Oei, 2011a; 2011b). It is estimated that 8 to 12 per cent of the people in Malaysia has depression, by Ng CG et al in year 2014.

Age prevalence

My patient is a 23-year-old young adult who is studying mechanical engineering.

The above symptoms cause him clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning. And, the episode is not attributable to physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition.

Learned helplessness theory

Martin E.P. Seligman, the psychologist who conceptualizes and develops the theory of learned helplessness. In his first experiment (classical conditioning), the dog is given electrical shock upon bell ringing. After a number of times, the dog reacts to the shock even before it happens. In his second experiment, the dog is put into a large crate where escape is possible. Still, the dog does not try to escape or jump but it lays down. Here we can see that the dog has learnt helplessness from the first experiment that nothing they can do to avoid the shock, thus it chooses to give up.

Same in depression, the condition is described as learned helplessness because patient refuses to get out of negative situation because the past has thought him that he is helpless. There will not be any help when he needs, thus he develops