Depression is the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain, according to a review of research.
The disease must be treated as a global public health priority, experts report in the journal PLOS Medicine.
The study compared clinical depression with more than 200 other diseases and injuries as a cause of disability.
Globally, only a small proportion of patients have access to treatment, the World Health Organization says.
Depression was ranked at number two as a global cause of disability, but its impact varied in different countries and regions. For example, rates of major depression were highest in Afghanistan and lowest in Japan. In the UK, depression was ranked at number three in terms of years lived with a disability.
Dr Alize Ferrari from the University of Queensland's School of Population Health led the study.
"Depression is a big problem and we definitely need to pay more attention to it than we are now," she told BBC News.
"There's still more work to be done in terms of awareness of the disease and also in coming up with successful ways of treating it.
"The burden is different between countries, so it tends to be higher in low and middle income countries and lower in high income countries."
Policy-makers had made an effort to bring depression to the forefront, but there was a lot more work to be done, she added.
"There's lots of stigma we know associated with mental health," she explained.
"What one person recognises as disabling might be different to another person and might be different across countries as well, there are lots of cultural implications and interpretations that come in place, which makes it all the more important to raise awareness of the size of the problem and also signs and how to detect it."
The data - for the year 2010 - follows similar studies in 1990 and 2000 looking at the global burden of depression.
Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Chisholm, a health economist at the department for mental health and substance abuse at the World Health Organization said depression was a very disabling condition.
"It's a big public health challenge and a big problem to be reckoned with but not enough is being done.
"Around the world only a tiny proportion of people get any sort of treatment or diagnosis."
The WHO recently launched a global mental health action plan to raise awareness among policy-makers.
相關內容
美國著名醫學雜誌《PLOS Medicine》的專家報告稱，必須將抑鬱作為全球公眾健康首要問題來對待。
該研究將臨床抑鬱症與其他200多種引發身心障礙的疾病和傷痛進行了對比。
世界衛生組織表示，全世界僅有小部分病人得到了治療。
抑鬱已成為世界第二大身心健康影響因素，但其影響因國家和地區而異。比如，重度抑鬱的比例在阿富汗最高，在日本最低。在英國，困擾病人最久的健康問題中，抑鬱排在第三。
昆士蘭大學人口衛生學院的阿利茲·費拉裡(Alize Ferrari)博士負責此項研究。
她在接受BBC採訪時說，「抑鬱是個大問題，我們必須予以更多的關注。」
「要讓人們意識到這種疾病的嚴重性，研發成功的治療方法，我們任重而道遠。」
「各國人民承擔的壓力不同，中低收入國家往往負擔更重，而高收入國家負擔較低。」
她接著說道，決策者們曾努力使抑鬱問題得到重視，但還有許多工作要做。
「我們知道許多病症和心理健康有關。」她解釋道。
「對病症的理解因人而異，有可能各國的解釋都有差異，一個國家獨有的文化內涵和詮釋在其中起了重要作用。因此，讓人們認識到問題的嚴重性，了解病症和診斷方法，顯得更加重要。」
2010年的數據是採用1990年和2000年研究全球抑鬱負擔的類似方法得出的。
丹尼爾·奇澤姆(Daniel Chisholm)博士是世界衛生組織心理健康與藥物濫用署的健康經濟學家，他說抑鬱非常容易導致健康問題。
「這是對公眾健康的巨大挑戰，是應認真對待的大問題，現在做得還遠遠不夠。」
「全世界僅有一小部分病人得到相應的治療或診斷。」
世界衛生組織最近啟動了一項全球心理健康行動計劃，以便提升決策者們對此問題的認識。
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（編輯：何瑩瑩）