Xinhua, September 6, 2006

Beijing, China -- According to Beijing Evening News, currently about 23.66% of college students in Beijing, that is at least 100 thousand of them, are suffering from depression.

Depression has become a very common kind of mental disorder in Beijing these days, as 3.31% of Beijingers have fallen victim to it. The situation of college students is even worse, as mentioned above. In 2004 alone, 19 college students in the city took their own lives, 1.9 out of 100 thousand on average.

Besides Beijing, there are about 36 million Chinese suffering from various mental disorders nationwide. The first psychological crisis telephone hotline was set up in Shanghai in August, 2003. Nearly 300 thousand people have dialled its number, about 70 thousand were received, about 48.9% of whom complained about severe mental disorders like depression or intents of suicide. Eighty-two in all those 287 who had the intents of suicide still committed suicide after they had made the call, but other 205 were saved after the guidance of the hotline.