Growing Prevalence of Mental Disorders

Globally, mental disorders are the leading cause of disability, over cancer and cardiovascular disease, according to recent research.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in eight people lives with a mental health condition, and that number is rising across the world.

Despite this global crisis, mental health continues to be underfunded. Globally, the median government spends two percent of health budgets on mental health, according to the WHO.

Funding Mental Health

According to the WHO Mental Health Atlas 2024, low-income countries spend $0..4, lower-middle income countries spend $0.34, and high-income countries spend $65.89 per capita on mental health.

Mental health disorders are most prevalent in the Americas, Europe, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

According to an analysis published in The Lancet medical journal, there is a completed suicide every 43 seconds. It is the 17th leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 29 globally, and the second leading cause of death among 15 to 29-year-old women.

Study Findings

The study, conducted by the University of Queensland, the University of Washington, and Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), discovered that almost 1.2 billion people worldwide are living with a mental disorder as of 2023. This number is nearly double what it was in 1990.

According to Associate Professor Damian Santomauro from the UQ School of Public Health and QCMHR, researchers examined the burden of 12 mental disorders, which include anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, major depression, autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia, ADHD, and eating disorders in global trends between 1990 and 2023.

Researchers used the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) metric to analyze mental disorder burden. One DALY equals one healthy year of life lost.

“Mental disorders have been a leading cause of DALYs globally for decades, but these findings show we are entering an even more concerning phase of worsening mental disorder burden.

“When compared with other disease groups, mental disorders were the fifth leading cause of DALYs in 2023, up from 12th in 1990, led mostly by increases in anxiety disorders and major depression.

“We observed increases in DALY rates in all world regions, but they were strongest in Australasia and Western sub-Saharan Africa.

“We also found the burden of mental disorder peaked amongst youth aged 15-19 years old, and women had higher rates than men,” says Dr. Santomauro.

Furthering the Findings

Honorary Associate Professor Alize Ferrari with the UQ School of Public Health says these findings prove the global response to mental disorders is insufficient.

“It does not matter whether you’re from a resource-poor country or a country with more health resources available; the burden is high.

“We need more research, but there are many factors likely contributing to the global trends observed, including data quality and availability.

“There are also risk factors for mental disorders likely at play, including those related to child maltreatment, domestic violence, genetics, rising inequality, decline in social cohesiveness, impact of climate change, pandemics, war, and natural disasters.

“We need a significant shift in how we respond to mental disorders globally, with better surveillance and more coordinated policy action to reduce the burden through early treatment and prevention.”

Since 1990, the number of people around the world diagnosed with an anxiety disorder has doubled; however, only one in four people are receiving treatment, according to the WHO.

The WHO also reports that depression is the single largest contributor to disability around the world.

Sources:

National Institutes of Health.gov: Updated trends in the global prevalence and burden of mental disorders, 1009-2023
Al Jazeera: The numbers behind global mental health and its different disorders
UQ News: World’s burden of mental disorders doubled since 1990

Featured Image Courtesy of Wayne S. Grazio’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License