Lancet Commission 2022: A Lancet-World Psychiatric Association Depression Commission

This Lancet-American Psychiatric Association Commission report calls for united action on depression. It synthesizes evidence from diverse contexts, including people with lived experience, to generate recommendations for stakeholders such as communities affected by depression, clinicians and public health practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and financiers. The COVID-19 pandemic has created more risks for mental health and depression – it has exacerbated adverse societal factors such as deep-rooted structural inequalities, as well as personal factors such as social isolation, bereavement, sickness, uncertainty, impoverishment, and poor access to health care. The Commission puts forth a set of key messages and recommendations. Some of its key findings include that depression is common; depression is experienced with various combinations of symptoms, severity levels, and trajectories; depression has a long history and is not a myth of an invention of biomedicine; depression is the result of a variety of factors that interact with genetic, environmental, social, and developmental vulnerabilities for each individual; at the individual level, diagnosing depression early in its course is a crucial first step to recovery. The report includes six major sections: what is depression; the epidemiology and burden of depression worldwide; the roots of depression; the public understanding of depression; interventions to reduce the burden of depression; and recommendations, which includes a discussion on the relationship between depression and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Commission provides a series of key recommendations, specifically highlighting the need for a staged approach to care, collaborative, cost-effective strategies to scale up interventions, and an increased investment with whole-of-society engagement to translate knowledge into practice. The report is accompanied by an editorial article on ensuring care for people living with depression.