Mental Illness Leading Cause of Disability in ... - Show Right Health

By Anne Harding

MONDAY, June 6, 2011 (Health.com) ? Mental health problems such as depression account for nearly half of all disability amongst young people between the ages of 10 and 24, according to a new study from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Researchers looked at data from 191 countries and estimated the number of years of great wellness lost to disability resulting from disease and injury (recognized as disability-adjusted life years). Among adolescents and young adults, 45% of disability was related to depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders, including alcohol abuse.

John S. Santelli, MD, a professor of population and family well being at Columbia University?s Mailman School of Public Well being, in New York City, says that, thankfully, mental health issues at the root of a young person?s disability normally respond to prevention, early detection, and treatment.

?There?s much greater behavioral treatments, there?s much much better pharmacological treatments as nicely,? says Dr. Santelli, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, which was published in the journal The Lancet. ?We know what to do. We just require to do it.?

The study was the 1st ever to look at the international burden of disability in young folks. Worldwide, the researchers estimated, disability claimed about 236 million healthy years from this group, which includes both estimated and actual years of life lost to illness and premature death.

Following mental disorders, accidental injuries were the second largest cause of disability, accounting for 12%, followed by communicable diseases (including HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis) at 10%.

The leading risk aspects for disability had been drug and alcohol use, unsafe sex, failure to use birth control, and iron deficiency, a widespread sign of malnutrition.

?Youth is regarded as to be a time of excellent wellness,? says one of the study?s authors, Fiona M. Gore, a WHO researcher in Geneva, Switzerland. Nonetheless, she says, ?important well being elements and risk elements for disease in later life emerge in these years ?

The study revealed some regional and socioeconomic differences. Compared to the world as a entire, for instance, mental disorders account for a greater proportion of disability in the U.S., in Europe, and in nations with high per-capita income. On the other hand, disability due to injuries and communicable diseases was lower in those countries than worldwide.

?There is a will need to focus on prevention techniques and on well being promotion of noncommunicable and nonfatal causes of disease in young people,? Gore says.

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