Depression is one of the most common mental disorders affecting 340 million people in the world today, accounting for a full 10% of productive years lost throughout the world. No one is immune from depression - it occurs in people of all social classes, all countries and all cultural settings. One in four women and one in ten men can expect to develop depression during their lifetime, but it's not just adults who suffer... ...depression affects at least one in 50 children under 12 and one in 20 teenagers. About half of all cases of depression is unrecognised and untreated. About 10-15 per cent of depressed people take their own lives. Depression costs for example the United States an estimated $53 billion each year. The World Health Organisation predicts that by the year 2020 depression will be the greatest burden of ill-health to people in the developing world, and that by then severe depression will be the second largest cause of death and disability. BUT DEPRESSION IS ONE OF THE MOST TREATABLE MENTAL ILLNESSES.