The Burden of Mental Health: the No 2 Killer by 2020

An estimated 400 million people today are either suffering from mental or neurological disorders or suffering from psychosocial problems. According to experts, depression epilepsy will be the second leading cause of mortality and disability by 2020.

"Stop Exclusion - Dare to care" is the slogan of the World Health Organization, whose report on global health will be entirely devoted to mental health.

Mental and neurological disorders

400 million people today suffer from mental/neurological disorders or suffering from psychosocial problems, particularly associated with alcoholism or drug addiction. Although attention has been paid to these diseases, much remains to be done. Depression is currently the fifth leading cause of mortality and disability in the world and according to Dr Benedetto Saraceno, Director of Mental Health of WHO, it should reach the second place by 2020.

Men and women are not equal as regards to depression. Women are more than twice as likely to be faced with depression during their lives. This disease affects on average one in five women and "only" one man in ten. In addition, depression, which affects 340 million people worldwide, may appear several times during a lifetime. Stressful urban life leads to an increase in these figures.

One million suicides

Although treatments are effective in the vast majority of cases, only a small number of these conditions are properly diagnosed. Appropriate treatment of depression would consequently result in a reduction in the number of suicides. There are 10 million cases of suicide attempts each year, of which 10% are fatal. Particularly affected are countries of the former USSR.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder affecting between 40 and 50 million patients around the world, of which 85% live in developed countries. It is estimated that two million new cases occur each year worldwide, of which 70 to 80% of epileptics may find life quite normal if they receive appropriate treatment.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe form of mental illness that affects 0.7% of the adult population. In total, 45 million people are infected in the world. Treatments exist and are particularly effective during the early stages of the disease; however, more than 50% of patients in the world can receive appropriate care.

Access to care

Today, treatments are available and allow patients to lead a normal life in society. Thus, the agency of the United Nations tries this campaign to focus on certain conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism and mental retardation, which is a gap between treatment available and accessible. This awareness aims to halt the possible reluctance of society to treatment and rehabilitation of patients.

Source: WHO