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Blacks and Depression as Dangerous as Cancer and Diabetes
Dr.
Rahn Kennedy Bailey likens untreated clinical depression to illnesses
as dangerous and devastating to the African American community as
cancer, heart disease and diabetes. That’s because neglected mental
illness often leads to the development of major medical maladies.
Depressed people are more likely to overeat, develop poor eating
habits, alcohol and drug abuse, and fail to exercise regularly. Studies
have established that any of these behaviors can lead to the onset of
hypertension, heart attacks and diabetes.
Bailey, the
chair of psychiatry at Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tenn.,
discussed why African Americans suffer with depression and mental
illness at greater rates than their Caucasian counterparts. “We find
[that] there is more mistrust of the system, less access to psychiatric
care, a greater degree of stigma … and a greater tendency for it to
be worse and for [people to] relapse …”
Bailey recommends a three-pronged approached to solving this ever-growing problem.
“We
need greater community information. Person[s] in our community may not
be aware … of medications [for] persons with clinical depression and
the need to have access to treatment for the combination of therapy and
medication management.”
“We need better community outreach. We need
to communicate in a tier like fashion to our health community,
religious community, our mental health community … People need us to
work together to present a united front.”
“We need to be very strong advocates for finding health care solutions
for healthcare problems [and] brain disorders are healthcare problems.
You need a physician to provide professional diagnosis and treatment
and maybe some medication management or involve medical response to
treat substantial brain related problems.
Bailey said in order to properly treat depression, it must begin to be
viewed “as if they were cardiovascular problems with hypertension,
endio problems like diabetes or [a disease] like asthma.” –terry shropshire
