Thursday, May 19, 2016

The mental illness epidemic

One third of the global burden of mental illness – defined as healthy years lost to an illness – falls on China and India. Millions go untreated because of stigma and lack of resources, research published in the Lancet has found. A lack of trained mental health professionals, poor access to mental health services, low investment, and high levels of stigma prevent individuals in both countries from accessing treatment. Less than 1% of the national health budget in either country is allocated to mental health care.

In China, less than 6% of people with anxiety and depression, substance use disorders, dementia and epilepsy seek treatment while in India, only about one in 10 people is thought to receive specialist help.

Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems among working age adults (aged 20-69 years) in both India and China, with higher numbers of women with the conditions than men. Substance use disorders were more prevalent in men, meanwhile, with the burden of drug dependence disorders more than twice as high for men as women, and the burden of alcohol use disorders nearly seven times higher for men. Dementia is a growing problem for both countries. From 2015 to 2025, it is estimated that the number of healthy years lost due to dementia will increase by 82% in India and by 56% in China.

Graham Thornicroft, professor of community psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health at King’s College London, explained: “In my opinion, the under-treatment of people with mental illness is a major scandal and governments must recognise not just the direct impact of mental illness but also the indirect ways it harms people’s lives.”

Researchers led by Fiona J Charlson said that the burden of mental health problems had increased in both countries over a 13-year period. “In China, mental, neurological and substance use disorders accounted for 7% of all [years of healthy life of the whole population] in 1990, rising to 11% by 2013. Similarly in India, the proportion of all burden explained by mental, neurological, and substance use disorders rose from 3% in 1990 to 6% in 2013,” they write. The burden of mental illness will increase in the next ten years in both countries, the researchers added. Estimates suggest that by 2025, 36.9m years of healthy life will be lost to mental illness in China (10% increase), and 38.1m in India (23% increase).

Since medical systems are failing to address the mental health treatment gap alone, Kamaldeep Bhui, professor of cultural psychiatry and epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London suggested alternative methods of coping with the crisis. He said: “Given the lack of trained professionals in India and China, and affordable and effective public mental health systems of care, alternative models of skilling local people are needed to promote mental health and deliver treatment.” In their research, authors led by Jagadisha Thirthalli suggest that traditional medicine practitioners, prevalent in both India and China, could be trained to recognise and refer patients who are a risk to themselves and others, or to advise patients against stopping their medication. People use alternative medicine for a number of reasons including faith, culture, cost and a belief they are safer, but the authors say more research is needed to understand the effectiveness and potential risks of these therapies.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

All these people have to do is PULL THEMSELVES TOGETHER!

ajohnstone said...

But perhaps like a rubber-band if stretched too far they will snap back ...I won't really respond to your now unscientific simplistic comments :-p

Matthew Culbert said...

Witness the cowardice of this distressed anti-social individual shouting from behind their anonymity.