Depression and anxiety are found in every society in the world, debunking old theories that only Westerners get depressed.

These new findings come from the world's most comprehensive study of anxiety and depression research to date, published by researchers at The University of Queensland.

In two separate studies of anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (that is, clinical depression) study authors found that surveys of clinical anxiety and depression have been conducted across 91 countries, involving more than 480,000 people.

They show that clinical anxiety and depression are serious health issues all around the world.

Anxiety disorders were more commonly reported in Western societies than in non-western societies, even those that are currently experiencing conflict.

Clinical anxiety affected around 10 per cent of people in North America, Western Europe and Australia/New Zealand compared to about 8 per cent in the Middle East and 6 per cent in Asia.

Source: UQ News, read the full article here