Mental health disorders are complex and can take many forms, in accordance with WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). This broad definition incorporates many forms, including depression, anxiety, bipolar, eating disorders and schizophrenia. Mental and substance use disorders are common globally, around 1-in-7 people (15%)

In the 2017 study by Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser from Our World in Data, they presented the latest estimates of mental health disorder prevalence and the associated disease burden

Mental health disorder

• It’s estimated that 970 million people worldwide had a mental or substance use disorder in 2017. The largest number of people had an anxiety disorder, estimated at around 4 percent of the population.
• It is estimated that 792 million people lived with a mental health disorder, slightly more than one in ten people globally (10.7%)

Depression

• Depression is ranked by WHO as the single largest contributor to global disability (7.5% of all years lived with disability in 2015)
• The total number of people living with depression in the world is 322 million, equivalent to 4.4% of the world’s population. Nearly half of these people live in the South-East Asia Region and Western Pacific Region
• Depression is the major contributor to suicide deaths, which number close to 800 000 per year.
• Prevalence rates vary by age, peaking in older adulthood (above 7.5% among females aged 55-74 years, and above 5.5% among males).
• The total estimated number of people living with depression increased by 18.4% between 2005 and 2015

Anxiety

• Anxiety disorders are ranked by WHO the 6th largest contributor to global disability (3.4%).
• Anxiety disorders account for 284 million 3.8% of the global population (2.8% of males - 4.7% of females)
• The proportion of the global population with anxiety disorders in 2015 is estimated to be 3.6%. As with depression, anxiety disorders are more common among females than males (4.6% compared to 2.6% at the global level).

Suicide

• It is estimated that 788 000 people died due to suicide In 2015
• It accounted for close to 1.5% of all deaths worldwide, bringing it into the top 20 leading causes of death in 2015.
• It occurs throughout the lifespan and was the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds globally in 2015.

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254610/WHO-MSD-MER-2017.2-eng.pdf?sequence=1

Our World in Data is a scientific online publication that focuses on large global problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. The publication's founder is the social historian and development economist Max Roser

Depression now ‘leading cause of disability worldwide’ and a major cause of morbidity worldwide

What is Depression?
Depression causes persistent sadness, a loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy and an inability to carry out daily activities and results from a complex interaction of social, psychological and biological factors

The big picture
Out of 192 countries and Rank by Disability-adjusted life years, the United States was ranked first with 1,454.74 DALY, China ranked 126th with 126857.314 DALY, Australia ranked 135th with 846.943 DALY being Greece, Spain and Japan the lowest-ranked of the list.

How can we reduce its impact?
To reduce depression, the UN agency recommends effective school-based programmes and exercise regimes. Different psychological and psychosocial treatments that health-care providers may offer are behavioural activation, cognitive behavioural therapy , and interpersonal psychotherapy, or antidepressant medication (such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants.

Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs): The disability-adjusted life year is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. It was developed in the 1990s as a way of comparing the overall health and life expectancy of different countries

Australia named among second-most depressed countries in the world

Out of the 21 countries in the WHO Western Pacific Region, Australia came second only to New Zealand for anxiety disorders, with seven per cent of the population affected.

Mental illness in Australia

• One in five (20%) Australians aged 16-85 experience a mental illness in any year.
• The most common mental illnesses are depressive, anxiety and substance use disorder. These three types of mental illnesses often occur in combination.
• Of the 20% of Australians with a mental illness in any one year, 11.5% have one disorder and 8.5% have two or more disorders.
• Almost half (45%) Australians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime
• The onset of mental illness is typically around mid-to-late adolescence and Australian youth (18-24 years old) have the highest prevalence of mental illness than any other age group.
• Around one in five (21.2%) of young people (15-19 years old) met the criteria for a probable serious mental illness
• Common mental illnesses in Australians are: anxiety disorders (14%), depressive disorders (6%) and substance use disorders (5%)
• 54% of people with mental illness do not access any treatment

Depression in Australia

• One in seven Australians will experience depression in their lifetime
• Depression has the third highest burden of all diseases in Australia and third globally
• Depression is the number one cause of non-fatal disability in Australia (23%), This means that on average, people with depression live with this disability for a higher number of years than people suffering from other non-fatal diseases such as hearing loss and dementia.

Suicide in Australia

• At least six Australians die from suicide and a further thirty people will attempt to take their own life
• Suicide is the leading cause of death for people Australians aged 25-44 and the second leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24
• Australians are more likely to die by suicide than skin cancer
• Men are at greatest risk of suicide, in 2011 men accounted for over three quarters (76%) of deaths from suicide.
• An estimated 72% of males don’t seek help for mental disorders.
• Attempted suicide is also an important issue with estimates that in Australia around 65,300 people a year attempt to take their own lives, the majority being women.

Australia and New Zealand prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders in the world

Disease burden of mental health and substance use disorders in the world

Not the people it kills, but that they cause suffering to people who live with them

• Australia is fifth with 9.43% DALYs

Prevalence of Mental and substance use disorders in the world

• New Zealand first with 18.71% DALYs
• Australia second with 18.38% DALYs

Prevalence of depressive disorders in the world

• Australia is tenth with 4.62% DALYs

Prevalence of anxiety disorders in the world

• New Zealand first with 8.54% DALYs
• Australia is ninth with 6.58 DALYs

Prevalence of eating disorders in the world

• Australia is first with 0.94% DALYs

Prevalence of schizophrenia in the world

• Australia is first with 0.36% DALYs

Mental health was also at the top of the list of chronic conditions in 2017–18

• Mental and behavioural conditions – 4.8 million people (20.1%)
• Back problems – four million people (16.4%)
• Arthritis – 3.6 million people (15%)
• Asthma – 2.7 million people (11.2%)
• Diabetes mellitus – 1.2 million people (4.9%)
• Heart, stroke and vascular disease – 1.2 million people (4.8%)
• Osteoporosis – 924,000 people (3.8%)
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – 598,800 people (2.5%)
• Cancer – 432,400 people (1.8%)
• Kidney disease – 237,800 people (1%)

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