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Mental Illnesses

September 7, 2011 by · Comments Off on Mental Illnesses 

Mental IllnessesMental Illnesses, A new CDC study suggests that nearly half of all Americans suffer from some type of mental health problem at some stage in their lives. The study specifically refers collectively to all diagnosable mental disorders which means anything from depression to stress disorder, post-traumatic suicide.

The study, a monitoring report, is actually a summary of other studies and the results are up to 25% of Americans have a mental illness of some sort. The report also suggests that mental illnesses are more common in the southeastern states. More worryingly, mental illness is often associated with higher incidence of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, epilepsy and cancer.

The biggest concern coming out of the report is that anxiety disorders are apparently as common as depression and so debilitating in terms of their effects on mental and physical health, but no monitoring efforts at the national or state disorders anxiety. In combination with the general trend towards a total lack of treatment for all forms of mental illness and those suffering from mental health problems to take care of themselves less than the general population, this could be a very worrying scenario. Not surprisingly, the report recommends increased surveillance of anxiety disorders and mental health problems in general and the creation of more effective programs to deal with them.

These results may not be so surprising if you think back to if you have had a severe episode of depression or anxiety, but combine this with the current economic climate, declining services and mental health support and health in general and how all these things could make a small problem in a large mental health and the outlook is not very nice.

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