Poll: U.S. Depression Hits All-Time High With 29% Of Adults Diagnosed

Three in 10 U.S. adults – an all-time high – say they have been diagnosed with depression at some point during their lifetimes, a new Gallup poll shows.

The 29% of Americans who say they have been diagnosed with depression is “nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2015” when 19.6% of U.S. adults say they had been diagnosed with depression, according to data and analysis of the new Gallup poll, which was released Wednesday morning.

The survey of more than 5,100 U.S. adults, conducted Feb. 21-28 of this year, asked whether a doctor or nurse ever told them they have depression and whether they have been or are currently being treated for depression. The poll showed 17.8% currently having depression or receiving treatment, which was up from 10.5% in 2015 when Gallup began measuring depression in its current form of data collection, the pollster said.

The Gallup survey comes as health insurers, government policy makers including the Biden administration and medical care providers are increasingly look at ways to treat the whole person, integrating behavioral treatment with traditional medical care.

Tbe effort to treat depression is taking on more urgency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gallup poll indicates.

“Clinical depression had been slowly rising in the U.S. prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but has jumped notably in its wake,” an analysis accompanying the Gallup poll data said. “Social isolation, loneliness, fear of infection, psychological exhaustion (particularly among front-line responders such as healthcare workers), elevated substance abuse and disruptions in mental health services have all likely played a role.”

Rates of depression are rising fastest among women, young adults as well as black and hispanic adults, Gallup said. “Over one-third of women (36.7%) now report having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime, compared with 20.4% of men,” the poll analysis said.