Survey: Depression up 25 percent on Gulf Coast since BP oil disaster

In something of a less than shocking revelation, a Gallup survey of 2598 Gulf Coast residents finds that reports of depression in the region have increased 25 percent since the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and its aftermath.

The eight-month survey actually began back in January, before the disastrous impact of the BP oil spill. Researchers contacted Gulf residents in 25 counties and parishes that face the Gulf of Mexico, from Texas in the west to Florida in the east.

Researchers found that "residents of Gulf Coast-facing counties reported 25.6 percent more clinical diagnoses of depression in the period after the oil spill compared with before it." Gallup also constructed a "Well-Being Index" -- a measure that seeks to determine the relative degree of happiness or stress people experience on a day-to-day basis. Employing that index, the survey found that "across each of these daily mood metrics, residents of Gulf Coast-facing counties experienced measurable increases in these negative emotions that their inland counterparts and residents of non-Gulf Coast states did not."

The regional study confirms the findings of numerous mental health experts monitoring the spill's psychological effects. And sadly, the worst may be yet to come: Cases of alcoholism, suicide and domestic violence in the area of Alaska hit hardest by the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill increased dramatically, but the first suicide in the region didn't take place until four years after the spill.

Steven Picou, an environmental sociologist at the University of South Alabama who spent 21 years tracking the mental health of Alaskans after the Valdez spill, has compared the slow deterioration of mental health in the region to a marathon, and fears much the same dynamic is taking hold on the Gulf Coast.

"It's like the table is set," he told CNN recently. "And now we're going to be served with this 15- to 20-year-course meal of problems."

(Photo via AP)