Defeat Depression Campaign
Five-year (1992-1996) UK campaign by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Royal College of General Practitioners to improve public attitudes to depression and GPs' recognition and management of it, through media work, leaflets, consensus statements and GP education.
- Years
- 1992–1996
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Topic
- Mental health
- Asks people to
- RecognizeSeek help
- Strategy
- Simple instruction
- Channel
- Clinical settingPrintRadioTV
- Audience
- CliniciansGeneral public
Evidence
ObservationalPositive
GP survey (Rix et al. 1999): two-thirds of GPs aware of the campaign and 40% said they had or might have changed practice. Public attitudes were relatively favourable except toward antidepressants, seen as addictive (Paykel 1997). SSRI prescriptions rose fivefold in a primary-care database over the campaign years (Donoghue 1998), not attributable to the campaign. Safe messaging: depression-awareness; not scored. Three national MORI surveys of about 2,000 adults each in 1991, 1995 and 1997 showed attitudes to depression, its treatment and antidepressants improved by 5-10% over the campaign, though most still saw antidepressants as addictive (Paykel 1998). Not attributable with certainty, as there was no control.
Sponsor (who paid)
- Royal College of Psychiatrists NGO, co-lead
- Royal College of General Practitioners NGO, co-lead
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
- Nuremberg Alliance Against Depression 2001–2002
Sources
- Paykel ES et al. The Defeat Depression Campaign: psychiatry in the public arena. Am J Psychiatry 1997;154(6 Suppl):59-65 evaluation · 1997 · DOI 10.1176/ajp.154.6.59 · PMID 9167546
- Rix S et al. Impact of a national campaign on GP education: an evaluation of the Defeat Depression Campaign. Br J Gen Pract 1999;49(439):99-102 evaluation · 1999 · PMID 10326259
- Donoghue J. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use in primary care: a 5-year naturalistic study. Clin Drug Investig 1998 reference · 1998 · DOI 10.2165/00044011-199816060-00005 · PMID 18370560
- Paykel ES et al. Changes in public attitudes to depression during the Defeat Depression Campaign. Br J Psychiatry 1998 evaluation · 1998 · DOI 10.1192/bjp.173.6.519 · PMID 9926082
- Orrell M et al. The impact of the Defeat Depression campaign. Psychiatric Bulletin 1996 evaluation · 1996 · DOI 10.1192/pb.20.1.50
Research notes
Evaluation links reviewed 2026-10-22: Donoghue 1998 (SSRI prescribing trends) set to reference, since it uses the campaign years only as a time frame and does not measure campaign exposure. Evidence updated 2026-10-22: level process -> observational and outcome unknown -> positive on Paykel 1998 (Br J Psychiatry), the before/after public attitude surveys previously listed as not yet located.
Record cases/defeat-depression.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign