This Week on Wellbeing we are beginning a 6-part series on depression. It is estimated by the WHO that 5% of adults suffer from depression, making it a common issue in society. In our first instalment, we are talking with Conjoint Professor Kay Wilhelm from UNSW. Prof. Wilhelm has published work on the relationship between the serotonin transporter gene, life events and depression onset. She has been part of the UNSW's School of Psychiatry since 2012.

In this episode Prof. Wilhelm talks about what depression is, the types of depression, the onset of depression, why depression is more common in women than in men, how the COVID era has impacted depression rates, the connection between anxiety and depression, self-medication in those with depression, and the supports available. 

"There is a later peak of depression which is sort of a later onset which is around sixties, and whereas the younger group (of people with depression) have more to do with genes and their childhood experience and developmental stages but people who get depression for the first time, which I say in capital letters, in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, there often is a medical cause underlying that." - Prof. Kay Wilhelm on this episode of Wellbeing

Tune in in a week when we talk with Prof. Tony Jorm and Betty Kitchener about depression 

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