Psychological Disorders and Treatment

Mentally ill in U.S.

As the world becomes a more complex entity and technology and speed increase, mental illness is also on the rise. Mental illness can range from slight situational depression to more serious diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The study of such illnesses in the population is called epidemiology.

Epidemiology is reported using different factors. Two of these are incidence, or the number of new cases of a condition that occur during a specified period of time and prevalence, or the number of new or existing cases observed at a point in time or during a period of time. According to the present epidemiological estimates, one in five people or more has a diagnosable mental disorder during the course of a year -- or a one-year prevalence.

According to the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study of the early 1980s and the National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) of the early 1990s, during a one-year period, 22 to 23% of the U.S. adult population -- or 44 million people -- have diagnosable mental disorders. In addition, although the annual prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents is not as well documented as that for adults, it is believed that about 20% of children have mental disorders with at least mild functional impairment.

The most common mental illness with adults is a form of anxiety disorder that includes a phobia or panic symptoms. Most mental illness in children and adolescence is of a mild functional impairment, although there is also a high incidence of anxiety disorders. According to one large-scale study of 9 to 17-year-olds, entitled Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA), as many as 13% of young people had an anxiety disorder in a year. In the U.S., 1 in 10 children and adolescents are victims of mental illness bad enough to cause some degree of impairment. However, in any given year, it is estimated that less than 1 in 5 of these children receives needed treatment.

Mental illness for older individuals, 55 and older, is also not as well documented as other ages. Estimates generated from the ECA survey indicate that 19.8% of the older adult population have a diagnosable mental disorder during a one-year period (that is a couple of percentage points higher in the general adult population). Almost 4% of older adults have serious mental illness (SMI), and just under 1% has severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Respectively in the general adult population, these numbers were 5.4% and 2.6%.

Due to the high, and growing, incidence of mental illness in society, the cost is considerable for diagnosis and treatment. The direct costs of mental health services in the U.S. In 1996 reached $69.0 billion, which represented 7.3% of total health spending. Another $17.7 billion was spent on Alzheimer's disease and $12.6 billion on substance abuse treatment