Major Depressive Disorder: Sadness and Negative Emotions

Worldwide, more than 320 million people suffer from major depressive disorder (MDD). 

COMPASS Pathways plc reports that the estimated economic burden of MDD in the United States, taking into account comorbid physical and psychiatric conditions, exceeds $200 billion per year.

What is MDD? A disorder characterized by a persistent feeling of sadness and increased negative emotions. 

In addition, it is considered a unipolar disorder, suggesting a distinction between MDD and bipolar depression, the latter often associated with an emotional state that fluctuates between depression and hypomania or mania. 

MDD is a chronic, recurrent and severe mental disorder associated with high rates of mortality, morbidity and diminished quality of life. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in 2015, more than 320 million people worldwide suffered from MDD and that this disorder currently accounts for an average of 7.5% of the years of life lost due to disability worldwide, as defined by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), i.e., the sum of years of healthy life lost due to mortality or non-fatal illness or impairment.

Depressive Disorder

COMPASS Pathways plc is a mental health care company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health. 

The company believes that its COMP360 psilocybin therapy, which combines COMP360 psilocybin with psychological support from specially trained therapists, could offer a new approach to the treatment of serious mental health conditions, including treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a subset of MDD, anorexia nervosa and post-traumatic stress disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

TRD is a condition that affects approximately 100 million patients worldwide.

Mortality

Patients with TRD are often unable to perform daily tasks, are more likely to receive disability or welfare benefits, and more often have co-occurring conditions compared to patients with MDD who do not have TRD. 

Direct medical costs for patients with TRD are estimated to be two to three times higher than for patients with TDM without TRD, due to, among other factors, higher hospitalization rates and longer average hospital stays. 

Patients with TRD have higher all-cause mortality compared to TDM patients without TRD.