A clinical Psychologist has attributed the recent increase in incidents of depression and suicide among young people, partly to overprotection by parents.

Speaking on JoyNews AM Show, Thursday, May 20, Seth Asafo said, "parents are partly at fault because they overshield their children and think that they are protecting them, they are rather making life difficult for them."

He added that young people of today have limited thresholds in dealing with the issues of life they are confronted with. Thus, overprotection by parents serves to worsen their situation, "overprotection of children prevents them from being able to experience challenges and to deal with it themselves. In many cases, we rally up quickly and solve the problem for the child and so they are not able to progress past a challenge."

He said some challenges can seem so overwhelming to young people because they have been kept away from the experience that could enable them deal with life.

"Take it this way, there are people who have had several heartbreaks, in the process, they build resilience. Subsequently, when they have a heartbreak it's not as bad as it was with their first experience," he told host Benjamin Akakpo.

Across the world, over 800,000 people between the ages of 15 and 29, lose their lives to depression.

Data from the United Nations indicate that 264 million people worldwide are affected by depression. The number of women affected by depression are said to be more than their men counterparts. It is also estimated that close to 800, 000 people die every year as a result of depression.

In Ghana, about 5.1% of those depressed are men while 8.5% of women are affected by the ailment according to the World Health Organization (WHO).