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www.aeirc-edu.com                                                                                                                                                                               Volume 1- 2014  

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©Advance Education Institute & Research Centre-2014                                                                                             

PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION IN UNDIAGNOSED POPULACE; A STUDY ON 

GENDER AND AGE 

Syed Zain Azher 1, Shamoon Noushad 1, Nida Naeem 1, Sadaf Ahmed 1&2 & Nelofer Sultana 3 

1. Psychophysiology Research Division, Advance Educational Institute & Research Centre 

2. Department of Physiology – University of Karachi 

3. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical College 

             Corresponding author: zain@aeirc-edu.com 

ABSTRACT: Depression is a psychological disorder that affects mental state of an individual for a long and short period of time the mental 

disturbance sometimes occurs due to sadness. Depression is the feeling of past and present experiences in one’s life but another feeling often goes 

together with the depression that is the future feeling. The purpose of this study is to present the vulnerability rate to depression in relation to age 

and gender in general population of Pakistan .The data was collected from general population in Pakistan from 228 subjects. The integration of 

age and depression was investigated in different age groups of teenagers (12-19 years), young adults (20-30years) and adults (> 30 years).The age 

and gender difference in relation to depression was studied through a 21-item BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory-II) Scale & result analyzed by 

SPSS 20.0. Results shows females are at higher risk of depression as compared to Male however according to age teenagers are at higher risk.  

KEYWORDS: depression, age, gender, BDI-II Scale  

INTRODUCTION:  

Depression is a serious psychological disorder that affects mental 

state of an individual for a long time (Sandy, 2014). This mental 

disturbance sometimes occurs due to sadness. Sadness is a natural 

feeling that lasts mostly for few minutes but when it goes longer 

than it is an indicator that person is going through a painful state of 

mind and body to which we called as depression (Roy, 2005). 

Depression is the feeling of past and present experiences in one’s 

life but another feeling often goes together with the depression that 

is the future feeling (although future may be the next minute or 

hour). We refer that feeling as Anxiety (Butrym, 1983). Depression 

is not a personality defect but it is actually a disease very painful 

for those who have it and more difficult for its family and friends. 

It aff1ects people of all ages, genders and background. Depression 

affects a person’s mood, behavior, physical changes in the body 

accompanied by aches and pain. Person may feel angry, irritable or 

tired (Roy, 2005). Clinically depression is a feeling of sadness, 

loss, anger or frustration that is the mood disorders and they 

interfere with daily life for weeks or longer (La Torre, 2011). 

Every minute of the day our brain is going through complex 

physiological changes that involve emotions and thoughts as well. 

This may happen due to the production and breakdown of various 

chemicals like hormones and neurotransmitters (Miller, 2008). 

Imbalance of neurotransmitters and hormones inside and outside 

the brain cells of body and making the brain cells more vulnerable 

to depression. The relationship between depression and 

neurotransmitter is very strong and it can be judged by giving any 

antidepressant to the depressed person. It will clearly be observed 

that the serotonin levels lowers down while taking the drug and the 

person will feel better. Besides neurotransmitter, other chemical 

involve are the Hormones that affects mood. Hormones play a 

greater role in causing depression, when a person is going through 

any stressful situation, the cortisol level will rise depending on the 

intensity of depression that how much depression the person feel. 

The level of cortisol gradually lowers down when the stress passes 

but if it remains higher for a long time than it might lead to high 

blood pressure that eventually causes the person more vulnerable 

to depression (Miller, 2008). Continuous sad mood, little or no 

interest in activities that were previously enjoyed significant 

changes in appetite, trouble falling asleep or oversleeping, loss of 

energy, worthlessness feelings with irrelevant regret, difficult in 

thinking and concentration, frequent thoughts of death or suicide 

are the symptoms of Depression (James, 2014). Men and Women 

have equal chances of developing depression but the women 

depression ratio is very high as they feel depression more deeply 

and show very clear response like becoming sad, tearful and hope 

less. Lack of social support increases vulnerability rate to 

depression in all women who are divorced, widowed, and single or 

married everyone feels depression at equal rates. (Hales, 2010) 

Although Men depression ratio is very high but they show different 

responses then women. They become irritated or fatigued and they 

are more drowned to lose their lives and feel like they are dead 

from inside. The suicidal rate is also very high in men them 

women with a ratio of 4:1(Hales, 2010) and there is a complex 

relationship between depression and age with the rates of 

depression seen higher in younger adults. The key contributions to 

depression include any abusive substance like alcohol or cigarette 

and sleep loss in young individuals. However Epidemiologic and 

clinical studies reviewed the relationship between depression and 

disability in older adults opening a new way to the directions for 

the future research (Bruce, 2001) Family history of depression also 

plays a great role in developing depression among young persons 

and it has also been noticed that teens that spend more time in 

watching television or spending time on computer are at a greater 

risk of developing depression. (Myrna, 2008). Depression in 

indicated by cigarette smoking as more teens or people are under 

the false impression that smoking will make them feel better. This 

is actually a false perception, nicotine makes the depression 

symptoms worsens by altering the brain chemistry (Zain, 2012). 

The purpose of this study is to present the vulnerability rate to 

depression in relation to age and gender in general population. 

 

METHOD: 

The sample of Participants was drawn from randomly selected 

individuals with (N=228) that include females (N=155) and males 

(N=73). The sample consists of 31 (12-19 years) age teenagers, 26 

(20-30 years) young adults and 171 (>30 years) Adults. 

Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory- II ( BDI-

II), a 21-item measures of depression symptoms severity of which 

is rated on 4-point likert scale (0-3 point anchors), with items 

summed to form a total score. The instrument has been designed 

with a scale that rates the level of depression for the participants. 



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©Advance Education Institute & Research Centre-2014                                                                                             

The BDI-II measures level of depression with the following scale, 

0-14= minimal or No depression, 15-20= Mild depression, 21-29= 

Clinical or borderline depression, 30-63= Severe depression. The 

data was collected by survey method Survey was designed to study 

the vulnerability rate to depression in different age groups of male 

and female. The study is a prospective study that is being carried 

out in different areas of Pakistan through e-mail and on the spot 

filling of the Questionnaire. Questions were asked that look at the 

individuals mood and physical state (less interest in doing things, 

feeling of sadness and hopelessness, trouble concentrating on 

things, feeling tired or little energy, trouble falling asleep, suicidal 

thinking) and the questions about the current feeling state and how 

you feel about the future & Psychological depression this includes 

the questions about the alcohol or smoke use, any recent or past 

significant stressors or if they are taking any antidepressant to 

release their depression. The questions also includes related to 

family support, parents attitude with the participant and parents 

relationship with each other. All these are important aspects to 

evaluate the psychological history of depression. 

 

RESULT: 

According to the analysis of the data recorded by calculating the 

depression rate among different age groups It was noted that young 

Adults mostly between the ages (20-30 years) are at greater risk of 

developing depression when we checked on a large sample size, 

8.33% of the young adults are at the risk of depression. The risk of 

developing depression among teenagers is very low only 1.3% 

teenagers are at higher risk. The adults with an age of greater than 

40 shows 0.44% ratio at the risk of developing depression. 

According to the study report while considering depression in 

relation with gender, female shows increased ratio of depression as 

compare to male. 8.77% females were at the risk of developing 

depression 1.32% were at the risk of developing depression. 

 

DISCUSSION: 

Among many universal facts it is also very well known that 

number of female depression sufferers are more than male 

depression sufferers with a ratio of 2:1 which means that an 

average of two women experience major depression to every one 

male sufferer (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1986). Practically no such 

difference have been found for depression in terms to gender but 

then why women are more at a risk of depression? Many surveys 

have been done to study why women are more vulnerable to 

depression. Studies suggest that women an experience loses more 

M
in

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M
ild

M
o

d
er

ea
te

Se
ve

re

M
in

im
al

M
ild

M
o

d
er

ea
te

Se
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M
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M
ild

M
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Se
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Teenagers Young Adults Adults

7.89%

0.88%
3.51%

1.32%

28.51%

17.54%
14.47%

8.33% 6.58%
4.55%

6.41%

0.44%

Minimal Mild Modereate Severe Minimal Mild Modereate Severe

Female Male

25.00%

14.47%

19.74%

8.77%

17.98%

8.33%

4.39%

1.32%

Graph 2 : This graph depression level according to Age 

Graph 1: This graph depression level according to Gender 



ORIGINAL ARTICLE  
www.aeirc-edu.com                                                                                                                                                                               Volume 1- 2014  

Page | 22 
©Advance Education Institute & Research Centre-2014                                                                                             

deeply that makes them more vulnerable to depression. Marital 

status is another factor that shows a greater difference of men and 

women depression. Estimations suggests that married men have 

lower rate of depression than single men but when it comes to 

female depression level seems to be the same for women who are 

married, divorced and those who had never been married. 

Hormonal shifts also play a very vital role for developing 

depression in women during pregnancy. These are just the 

hypothesis and testable ideas that have a chance to be proved as 

right or wrong (DePaulo, 2002).A longitudinal study suggests that 

the peak age to study vulnerability to depression is 15-18 years, it 

is the most critical time to observe the higher risk of depression at 

this age and it also shows greater gender difference between the 

ages 13-15 years showing female sufferers greater than male 

(Hankin, 2001). A psychopathological approach is required to 

study depression in children and young adults (Cicchetti, 1998). 

Prevelance studies tells us that psychologically disturbed children 

are at more greater risk of developing depression especially those 

that have a history of Psychiatric disorders are at 3 times of greater 

risk for developing depression than those who had no 

psychological symptoms (Costello, 2003). Psychological 

symptoms include hopeless feelings, with poor concentration, 

having less energy for doing things and sometimes lead to suicidal 

thinking and self-criticism (Robinson, 2008). There is a very easy 

to escape from problems or troubles and most people in our society 

attempt to do that. When they are sad and want to relieve their 

sadness they mistakenly belief that drugs are a solution This is the 

easiest way that most teenagers adopt and it is also seen that if a 

close family member is an alcoholic, an experimenting teen is at a 

great risk (Wilkinson, 1994). If a psychiatrist diagnosed depression 

than the fastest way to feel better is the combination of medication 

and psychotherapy through talking with a therapist. There are 

many medicine designed for this purpose that helps to feel better 

while recovering from illness under the proper guidance of an 

expert under whose observation the medications effects and its 

changes to the personality can be seen (Cobain, 2007) Patients 

show positive attitude in their performance when taking any 

professional help such as an antidepressants or having discussions 

with the experts. For the treatment of depressed patients group 

counseling is very necessary while educating the patients for the 

primary care of the depressed patients. (Hansson, 201). 

 

CONCLUSION: 

Rate of depression such as mild, moderate and severe was 

observed higher in the young Adults groups than adults and was 

found to be lowest in the teenagers. Adults have shown a different 

response as the age increases they show little interest in 

physiological activities and there severity to depression decreases. 

With the passage of time as they move towards older age they 

show hopelessness feelings towards life and their response towards 

severity of depression is minimal. Teenagers are independent and 

free from any kind of responsibilities and fewer teens were at 

clinical or borderline depression. According to the gender 

differences females show greater response towards the severity of 

depression than males. This has also been proven from many past 

researches that women are more vulnerable to depression than men 

and they get upsets quickly at minor annoyances. Depression 

symptoms often go together with anxiety so there might be a 

possibility of anxiety along with depression. Scientist are still 

struggling to maintain and develop the reasons behind the women 

depression rate as women’s attempt to obtain a position equal to 

that of men in society. 

 

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE  
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©Advance Education Institute & Research Centre-2014                                                                                             

 Wilkinson, Beth. (1994).Drugs and Depression. New York: 

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