Cut-throat competition, unemployment, increasing tension and break-up of families is leading most of India's population, including a high percentage of youth, into depression.

''Up to 80 per cent of such youth commit suicide,'' Gandhi Medical College's Psychiatry Department Head R N Sahu told mediapersons. He is the convener of a conference, beginning in Bhopal on April 26, under the aegis of the Indian Association of Private Psychiatry.

Pointing out that depression mostly affected adolescents and youth, he added that psychological disorders were on the rise and depression constituted a major part. People affected by cardiac disorders, diabetes, sexual ailments, joint pain and other diseases also suffered depression, he said.

''If timely attention is not paid then by 2020 India will have the largest number of depression sufferers,'' said Dr Sahu, while quoting the World Health Organisation.

The two-day event, a first of its kind in the Madhya Pradesh capital, would witness discussions on mental diseases-related contemporary subjects and therapy.

More than 150 specialists are expected. They include Bangalore's Professor Sanjeev Jain and Dr Janardan Reddy, who would speak on depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder respectively.