The increase in rates of depression shows a turnaround in the falling rates of depression seen in earlier years and is linked to rising male unemployment, mainly seen in the poorest areas of the country.
The School funded research, led by Professor Tony Kendrick in the Primary Care and Population Sciences Academic Unit, studied GP records of depression before and after the recession, using anonymised data from 142 practices contributing to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink between 2003 and 2013.
The overall rate of depression - recorded through either diagnostic or symptom codes - fell by 15% between 2003 and 2008, but then rose again, by 4%, up to the end of March 2013.
Read more in PULSE magazine.
The research was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders: Changes in rates of recorded depression in English primary care 2003–2013: Time trend analyses of effects of the economic recession, and the GP contract quality outcomes framework (QOF)