Epidemiology and Management of Depression

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of IJERPH, I am pleased to announce this Special Issue, entitled “Epidemiology and Management of Depression”.

In recent decades, a growing amount of attention has been given to the prevalence of depression and its determinants, as this condition represents a leading cause of disability worldwide, and it is a major contributor to the overall global burden of disease, affecting about 5% of adults.

More recently, since the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, this key public health issue has worsened, resulting in a rise of about 25% in depression cases during the first year of the pandemic, with this trend increasing as the pandemic progressed.

Depression results from the complex interplay between biological, psychological, and social factors and may significantly impair individual, relational, and social functioning in several/all life domains. Thus, depression represents a global priority, requiring multidisciplinary research efforts in order to develop comprehensive and adequate strategies to prevent depression and/or illness escalation, to manage this condition and to effectively promote individuals’ wellbeing.

Responding to this need, the present Special Issue aims to provide multidisciplinary, updated and advanced contributions addressing biological, psychological and social risk and protective factors to be used to prevent/manage depression and promote mental health. 

This Special Issue seeks original, high-quality research targeting a variety of populations and/or different contexts (e.g., including but not limited to adults in the work context, youths in the educational context, and medical patients in the healthcare context). Special attention will be paid to original research. Development and validation studies of measurement tools and original evidence-based management/treatment strategies are highly welcome. Systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses, policy and practice reviews, perspectives, clinical trials, case reports, and brief research reports are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Maria Clelia Zurlo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• epidemiology
• depression
• assessment
• risk factors
• protective factors
• management
• interventions
• treatment
• psychopathology
• mental health
• multidisciplinary