• The real facts about mental illness

PREVALENCE OF MENTAL DISORDERS:

• Two million Americans live with schizophrenia, and 2/3 of them do not receive any treatment, even though the disease can be managed successfully. In fact, with treatment, about 50% can improve significantly or recover completely over time. (Source: US Dept of HHS, “Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General Executive Summary, NIMH, 1999).

• Well over twice as many Americans (3 million) live with schizophrenia compared to HIV/AIDS (Source: US CDC, “HIV in the United States,” Glynn et al, report that an estimated 1,039,000- 1,185,000 persons in US were living with HIV in 2003.

• Every year at least 25% of the population worldwide has some form of mental disorder. At least 2/3 of them receive no treatment, even in countries with the most resources. (Source: World Health Organization: Global Mental Health Report series publ in The Lancet, Sept 8 – Oct 6, 2007).

• In the U.S., 31% of people are affected by mental disorders, yet 67% of them are not treated. In Europe, 27% of people are affected by mental disorders but 74% of them are not treated. (Source: Ibid.).

• 1 in 4 American adults (57.7 million) and 1 in 10 children suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. (Source: National Institute of Mental Health, “The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America,” 2006).

• In 2005, there were an estimated 24.6 million adults aged 18 or older who experienced serious psychological distress, which is highly correlated with serious mental illness. (Source: SAMHSA, public health agency within US Dept of Health and Human Services, News Detail, Dec 2006)
• About 6% of Americans have a severe mental illness, defined functionally as experiencing psychotic symptoms, being suicidal, having substance use/abuse problems severe enough to threaten jobs or relationships, or having symptoms severe enough to yield other, parallel impairments. Another 20% has a moderately severe form, including phobias severe enough to not be able to go to work, depressions that have not yet reached suicidality, PTSD that interferes with day-to-day functioning, and the like. (Source: Steve, citing Kessler, Berglund, Demler, Jin & Walters (2005a), Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in The National Comorbidity Survey replication, Archives of General Psychiatry, 62; 593-602; Kessler, Chiu, Demer & Walters, (2005b), Prevalence, severity and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 617-627.

COST OF MENTAL DISORDERS:

• In the U.S., the annual economic cost of mental illnesses is estimated at more than $190 billion, most of which reflects loss of productivity. (Source: Am J. Psychiatry, 2008; 165:703-711, “Individual and Societal Effects of Mental Disorders on Earnings in U.S.,” Kessler, Heeringa, Lakoma et al).

YOUTH AND MENTAL DISORDERS:

• Among 18-24 yr olds the prevalence of serious psychological disorder is high (18.6%) versus all adults aged 18 or older (11.3%).(Source: SAMHSA, Dec 2006);

• Only one-quarter of young adults (18-24) believe that a person with a mental illness can eventually recover; (Source: SAMHSA)

• Only 54% of young adults, who know someone with a mental illness, believe that treatment can help people with mental illnesses lead normal lives (Source: SAMHSA).

• Compared to older adults, the18-24 yr old age group shows the lowest rate of help-seeking behaviors. (Ibid.).

• Those with mental illnesses in the young adult segment have a high potential to minimize future disability if social acceptance is broadened such that they receive the right support and services early on. (Ibid).

• At least 1 in 10 children has a serious mental or emotional disorder (Source: Ibid);

• Autism-spectrum disorders have been estimated to affect approx 1 in 150 children (Source: JAMA 2007 (Mar 7); 297 (9):940, “Autism Spectrum Disorders Common,” Kuehn, CDC).

• ADHD (Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder) has been diagnosed in an estimated 4.4 million youths between ages 4-17 (Source: US Centers for Disease Control; Pediatrics 2003; 111-S1232-1237, “ADHD in School-Aged Children,” Lesesne, Visser, White).

• As of 2003, an estimated 2.5 million youth are on medication for ADHD condition (Source: Ibid).

• Average onset of schizophrenia is 21; yet a 9 year gap exists before treatment, if any, begins. (NAMI National Survey, June 2008).

• About 50% of all lifetime mental disorders begin before the age of 14 years (Source: World Health Organization, Global Mental Health Report series, The Lancet, September 8 – October 6, 2007).

• Most mental disorders of childhood or adolescent onset are highly likely to persist into adulthood (Source: T. Beauchaine, & S.Hinshaw (Eds), (2008), Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley).

YOUTH AND STIGMA:

• Compared with adults, young people have less favorable attitudes towards people with mental illness. Because young people are often embarrassed about mental illness and believe it should be handled privately, they tend to seldom seek help. Stigma is therefore a barrier to help-seeking by young people for mental illness. (Source: WHO, Global Mental Health Report series, The Lancet, September 8 – October 6, 2007).

LACK OF AWARENESS RE MENTAL HEALTH:

• 85% of Americans recognize schizophrenia as an illness, yet only 24% are familiar with it. 64% cannot recognize symptoms or mistakenly believe symptoms include “split” or multiple personalities. (Source: NAMINational Survey, June 2008).

• 95% of caregivers say the general public knows nothing at all or not very much about schizophrenia and 96% believe it is important that they (caregivers) educate others about the illness (Source: Ibid.).

MEDIA PORTRAYALS:

• 91% of schizophrenia caregivers do not believe the media portrays the illness accurately, which is a major reason for the public’s lack of knowledge (Source: Ibid.).

• 72% of prime-time portrayals of people with mental disorders featured violent tendencies; namely one-fourth of adults with mental disorders were depicted as killers. (Source: The Mark of Shame, Stephen P. Hinshaw, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 118).

• Television in general continues to show people with mental disorders as unemployed or as failures in their jobs. (Source: Wahl and Roth, 1982; Gerbner, unpublished data, cited in Link and Cullen, 1983; Wahl, 1992).

• By the late 1990s, crime and in particular violent crime were still 10 times more likely to be evidenced by characters with mental disorders than by other adult characters on prime-time programming. (Source: Hinshaw, The Mark of Shame, p. 118, citing Diefenbach, 1997).

• Content of children’s television programming this decade showed that nearly one-half contained references to mental illness and among major characters depicted, none had even one admirable quality. (Source: Hinshaw, The Mark of Shame, pg 118, citing Wilson, Nairn, Coverdale and Panapa, 2000; see review in Wahl, 2003).

• Canadian print media from 1977-84 newspaper accounts of persons with mental illness overwhelmingly featured coverage of schizophrenia, with 77% of the descriptions focused on this disorder, greatly outstripping its actual prevalence, and with such accounts stereotypically emphasizing traits of unpredictability, dangerousness, unemployment and unproductiveness. (Source: Hinshaw, ibid).

• With respect to UPI (United Press International) newspaper stories about former mental patients, it was found in the early 1990s that 86% of such features focused on commissions of violent crimes, and that stories on dangerous actions of mentally ill individuals were those that tended to become front-page news (Source: Hinshaw, citing Byrd, McDaniel and Rhoden, 1980; Cassata, Skill and Boadu, 1979, Day and Page, 1986, Matas, el-Guebaly, Harper, Green and Peterkin, 1986, and Shain and Phillips, 1j991).

STIGMA AND DISCLOSURE:

• 79% of Americans want friends to tell them if they have schizophrenia, yet only 46% say they would disclose themselves. (Source: Ibid.).

SUICIDE AND MENTAL DISORDERS:

• Of those who die from suicide, more than 90% have a diagnosable mental disorder (Source: U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Suicide in the U.S. Statistics and Prevention).