Depressed people committed as many as 23 percent of the murders recorded in recent years, and most of those could have been avoided if decent psychological care had been available, a research report has found.

Depressed people committed more than 6,000 homicides between 2002 and 2006, according the report, released at the 10th national judicial psychiatric academic symposium in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

"People suffering from depression often think their lives are hard," Zhao Zhenhuan, the head of a cerebral surgery hospital in Guangzhou, said. "If they choose to die, they want to die with their most loved ones."

However, few people would go to the extreme of committing murder if they received timely and proper treatment, he said.

Men and women acted differently in choosing their victims, the Beijing Evening News quoted the research report as saying.

Of 6,000 cases of murder covered by the report, 94.4 percent of the women perpetrators killed their children, while 63.2 percent of the males killed their wives or lovers. Half of them committed suicide after killing, according to the report.

Figures from the China Association for Mental Health show that more than 26 million people suffer from depression in China.

Almost 63 percent of them never see a psychologist. Up to 70 percent of suicides or attempted suicides involve depressed people.

About 250,000 Chinese take their own lives each year, making suicide one of the major causes of death in China, Michael R. Philips, China representative of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and a consultant with the Mental Health Department of the World Health Organization, said.

The research paper found that many people in rural areas, especially married ones who have not received a college education, suffer from the mental disorder.

Several tragedies caused by mentally ill people have aroused concern in China.

Huang Wenyi, a mentally ill man in Guangdong Province, murdered five family members and another man with a hammer in late December last year.

He was given a death sentence with a two-year suspension on July 11.

In another case, Wang Ye, 32, who said she had a history of mental illness, hammered her husband to death one night in October 2006 because he had complained about her skin before they went to bed.

Wang appeared at an intermediate court in Beijing earlier this week. No sentence has been given.

The report found that up to 23 percent of homicides are committed by depressed people. The figures vary by province.

(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2007)