75% of people with mental disorders are deprived of necessary treatment and care

Photo: who.int

More than 75% of people suffering from mental disorders in the developing world receive no treatment or care.

A new WHO programme launched yesterday, on World Mental Health Day 2008 highlights the huge treatment gap for a number of mental, neurological and substance use disorders.

Across Africa for example, nine out of ten people suffering from epilepsy go untreated, unable to access simple and inexpensive anticonvulsant drugs which cost less than US$5 a year per person.

WHO is now calling on governments, donors and mental health stakeholders to rapidly increase funding and basic mental health services to close this huge treatment gap.

Because with proper care, psychosocial assistance and medication, tens of millions could be treated for diseases such as depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy and begin to lead healthy lives, even where resources are scarce.

"Governments across the world need to see mental health as a vital component of primary health care. We need to change policy and practice. Only then can we get the essential mental health services to the tens of millions in need", said Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization.

In the majority of countries, less than 2% of health funds are spent on mental health.

In any one year, one-third of people living with schizophrenia, more than half of those suffering from depression, and three-quarters of those with alcohol use disorders are unable to access simple and affordable treatment or care.

Worldwide, every 40 seconds, one person dies of suicide that is one of the leading causes of death among young adults. Suicide is a condition that is preventable.

It does not have to be this way. In Chile, the national primary care programme now includes treatment of depression for all who need it bringing much needed care to hundreds of thousands of people.

An epilepsy project in China which integrated a model of epilepsy control into local health systems achieved excellent results.

This confirmed that epilepsy could be treated with an inexpensive anti-convulsant medicine by health professionals who had undergone basic training. The project which started in six provinces has now been extended to 15 provinces and tens of thousands of sufferers have been treated.

The extra cost to scale up services for mental disorders is not too large. A study conducted by WHO showed that in low-income countries, scaling up a package of essential interventions for three mental disorders - schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression - and for one risk factor - hazardous alcohol use - requires an additional investment as low as $US 0.20 per person per year.

Source: InterMedia consulting