4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Surveys suggest that at least one in four of us will suffer from anxiety and depression during our lifetimes. The prevalence of these conditions is one of the reasons given for poor school attendance. And it's estimated that these mental health disorders account for 12.5% of all sickness leave in the UK. So what’s caused such an explosion in mental distress and what, if anything, can be done to bring down the numbers? Join David Aaronovitch and a panel of guests to find out.
Guests: Professor Jennifer Wild, a consultant clinical psychologist and professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford Dr Jennifer Dykxhoorn, a psychiatric epidemiologist at University College, London Dr Sharon Neufeld from Cambridge University Medical School and Thalia Eley, professor of developmental behavioural genetics at Kings College, London
Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Rosamund Jones and Sally Abrahams Sound engineers: Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon
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0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
0:08.6 | Hello, this is the second of three programmes all dealing with the same theme, the future of health. |
0:15.2 | Last week, we looked at cancer. Next week, it'll be what the artificial intelligence revolution |
0:20.6 | means for medicine. Today, though, I'm be what the artificial intelligence revolution means for medicine. |
0:22.9 | Today, though, I'm exploring what has widely been described as an epidemic, this time of anxiety and depression. |
0:30.1 | The data appears alarming. |
0:32.6 | Survey suggests that one in four or maybe even one in three of us will suffer from these conditions during our lifetimes. |
0:39.3 | And it's now estimated that these mental disorders account for 12.5% of all sickness leave in the UK. |
0:46.7 | So how should we read these alarming statistics? |
0:50.6 | What do they tell us about what's happening inside our heads? And what could we do about it? |
0:55.7 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
1:02.9 | Let's go straight to the mental health data. |
1:05.4 | What should we make of it? |
1:07.1 | Jennifer Wilde is a consultant clinical psychologist |
1:09.7 | and professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, and Dr. Jennifer Dikeshorn is a psychiatric epidemiologist at University College London. |
1:19.7 | Jennifer Dyneson, there's an awful lot of discussion at the moment about what people have called an epidemic of mental illness and so on. |
1:26.0 | Is it broadly true that we are seeing significant increases |
1:30.3 | in people suffering and reporting mental health problems? Overall, we do seem to see an |
1:36.6 | increase at the population level in people showing up to their GP for treatment for depression |
1:42.8 | or anxiety or other mental health problems. We also seem to |
1:46.3 | have some evidence to indicate that there's an increase in symptoms over time. So in the last |
1:51.7 | 20, 10 years, we are seeing more people that are scoring highly for symptoms of anxiety and |
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