NEW YORK, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A new survey says baby boomers are more likely to suffer depression than young people.
The survey, which involved face-to-face interviews with more than 43,000 non-institutionalized individuals aged 18 years and older, found that five percent of U.S. adults experienced major depressive disorder during the 12 months preceding the survey and 13 percent experienced MDD at any time during their lives.
The highest lifetime risk of depression was among middle-aged adults, a shift from the younger adult population shown to be at highest risk by surveys conducted during the 1980s and 1990s.
"This marks an important transformation in the distribution of MDD in the general population and specific risk for baby-boomers aged 45 to 64 years," said Deborah Hasin, PhD, professor of clinical Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.
Risk for the onset of MDD increases sharply between age 12 and age 16 and more gradually up to the early 40s when it begins to decline.
Among those with current MDD, 14 percent also have an alcohol use disorder, five percent have a drug use disorder, and 26 percent have nicotine dependence.
