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Britons Are The Most Depressed
People In Europe
10-2-1

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are the most depressed people in Europe, according to a new study.
 
Depression affects more women than men and is more common in urban areas, according to findings published on Monday in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
 
Scientists compared patients in Britain, Spain, Finland, Norway and Ireland, looking at groups in busy cities and rural villages.
 
"Depressive disorder is a highly prevalent condition among working age adults in Europe," the report's authors, including Professor Greg Wilkinson, of the University of Liverpool, said in the report. "Rural communities show a lower prevalence of depressive episodes."
 
More than 14,000 people aged from 18 to 65 were randomly selected to take part in the study, the first of its kind to cover Europe.
 
Researchers chose Liverpool and Dublin as their UK and Ireland urban research centres. The Vale of Clywd in Wales and the Irish county of Laois were the rural test centres.
 
Researchers found that across Europe, 7.9 percent of women and 5.2 percent of men suffered from depression.
 
The figures were much higher across the UK and Ireland, particularly in towns and cities.
 
Some 21 percent of urban UK women were prone to depression, compared to only 4.7 percent in rural areas.
 
One in 10 men in UK cities suffered depression -- the figure was halved among men in the country.
 
The study found Spain had the lowest levels of depression with barely figures of barely two percent.
 
In Finland and Norway there was not much difference between rates of depression in town and country, with the figure hovering between four percent and ten percent.
 
© 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

 
 
 
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