World Depression Congress

Clinical depression has surged to epidemic proportions in recent decades. In 2012, WHO the World Health Organization was called upon to take action. Depression ranges from little-mentioned misery at the margins of society to a phenomenon that is rarely far from the news. It is widespread in classrooms and boardrooms, refugee camps and inner cities, farms and suburbs. Depression has become a significant contributor to the global burden of disease and affects approximately 350 million people in all communities across the world. Here, we will focus on depressive disorders as pertaining to women, more specifically, women in the MENA region. We will discuss reasons for higher depression rates in women as opposed to men including psychological, social, financial, and hormonal.

We will present cognitive behavioral group therapy and peer support/ counseling as a best practice to provide help and support to MENA women where therapeutic alliances are formed, group cohesion is developed, self esteem is restored with greater cognitive improvements, and homework compliance is emphasized.

We will end this presentation with recommendations for launching cognitive behavioral group interventions to help reduce prevalence of depression among women in the MENA region.