Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness

[IamK]

Source: Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

"Mental disorders have become Europe's largest health challenge of the 21st century," the study's authors said.

At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/nearly-40-pct-europeans-suffer-mental-illness-230827577.html

[IamK]

1. I thought it was interesting US is estimated around 20%....

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/chapter2/sec2_1.html

but it depends on how mental illness is defined... Long term issues, short term depression etc...

[Name removed]

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[no_hypocrisy]

2. Wouldn't it be expected that a lot of Europeans would be depressed

with the economic downturn and uncertainty that is ubiquitous, across borders?

[Terry_M]

3. This is failure on the part of the pharmaceutical/psychology industry

That they only managed to expand the classification for mental disorder to include 40% of the population... I would've expected at least 75% by now.

[DURHAM D]

6. Very funny.

[AlbertCat]

4. a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety

Depression and anxiety are "brain disorders"?????

[slackmaster]

5. It's officially called a "mood disorder" but chronic depression is treated as a physical ailment

Often with medication.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Can be. I consider my bipolar to be a brain disorder because there's something faulty in it when it

come to regulating its chemistry.

[originalpckelly]

42. No, it is. Not can be. "mental illness" is a dismissive term.

As if it was just in this abstract mind thing, and not the organ itself, the brain.

These people are heavy dualists, and because of that they think that people like us can just overcome these serious brain illnesses without medicine. They are total quacks.

And other illnesses of the brain that don't easily show up on MRIs like anxiety disorders and unipolar depression, they are just as real. Even those sick "psychopaths" are suffering from brain illnesses.

It's just that unlike many other illnesses, these ones impact the organ that gives us our character, the organ that determines the way we act.

These people who do not treat these illnesses as medical problems and tell us that it is all some big conspiracy to sell drugs are basically saying the equivalent of telling a man whose leg was just sheared off to walk it off. No, we can't walk stupid ass, that's motherfucking point.

This entire thread is filled with some of the dumbest ideas I have heard in my life.

Even if a disease is common, it doesn't mean that it's not a disease. Heart disease is common, but tell the guy who just had the heart attack it really isn't a real disease. Fuckers.

They need to go out and actually read and learn about these illnesses and stop listening to the quacks who fit their conspiratorial fantasies. Real people are hurt by these ideas of theirs, and it's time that it stops.

[DCBob]

7. That sounds absurd. Stress and anxiety are not illnesses.

Its normal part of our modern stressful world... unfortunately.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[makhno]

29. The APA begs to disagree

Check out the DSM-IV-TR.

Dismissive attitudes such as yours are among the reasons a lot of people don't feel comfortable bringing up potentially debilitating anxiety and stress disorders with their (often misinformed and poorly trained) GPs.

[DCBob]

32. but 40%?? how is that possible?

i suspect many of those are not "debilitating" potentially or otherwise.

[makhno]

35. I'm not surprised

I'd say it's easily there if you know what symptoms to look for.

It's a bit like substance abuse (which is not only an illness in itself, but is often a result of untreated stresss and anxiety disorders), in that you can have functional people without outwardly severe symptoms but whose life is nevertheless seriously affected by their condition.

Add various "mild" forms of depression and other socially unacceptable disorders to the count, and the figures start making some sense.

Also, the study doesn't report that 40% suffer from anxiety and stress. It includes "about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis."

But yeah, it is a stressful world out there, and I can see how it can contribute to anxiety, stress and addiction disorders specifically.

I just wouldn't be so dismissive of various forms of anxiety. It's not an easy burden to live with.

[stockholmer]

37. you are correct, see my reply (I actually went thru the study itself and provide a link)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1879101&mesg_id=1879567

[DCBob]

46. Yes, that is what I suspected.

Thanks!

[adhd_what_huh]

49. the number is high BECAUSE they are treated prior to the

illness or mood disorder becoming debilitating. I imagine this is the benefit of access to health care. Not all treatment is permanent and their willingness to admit to such mood disorders and accept treatment is an example of some of the cultural differences between us.

In America we are used to an illness becoming debilitating before treatment is sought, deserved or needed; this is evident in your posts.


You are still an idiot.:silly:

[H2O Man]

36. Both stress and anxiety are

normal parts of human existence. Our brain is hardwired in such a manner that anxiety is a built-in experience for both the conscious and unconscious mind. And stress is tied to survival.

However, there are individuals for whom what are normal and healthy amounts of stress and anxiety are not their experience .... their brains are "tuned" to produce either or both in amounts that are not only not productive, but which actually decrease their ability to function on a daily basis. This is not to be confused with the normal cycle of moods that most people have. The intensity and duration are on an entirely different scale.

Those who produce mind-altering drugs are prone to attempt to get far more people than those who actually need such medications, much less benefit from them, to confuse the abnormal amounts of stress and anxiety associated with the unnatural conditions people tend to live under, with a problem in brain chemistry. Most people would do better to change some situation(s) in their lives, than to medicate and accept the unacceptable.

[adhd_what_huh]

48. clearly you do not have PTSD.

[orpupilofnature57]

8. Dementia is a world away from insomnia ,quelling neurosis is an art form

we spend Billions on in I-Merry-can.

[Proletariatprincess]

9. I just can't believe that it is worse in Europe than in the USA.

I would like to see a similiar study here...that is, a reliable study not promoted by big pharma or other for profit organizations with profit motives in the outcome.
Lot's of reasons to believe US citizens are worse off mentally and physically.

[orpupilofnature57]

10. It's a wonder they didn't zone in on France.

[slackmaster]

11. I suspect that the health care systems in those European countries have their own incentives...

...for encouraging over-diagnosis of some conditions.

My SWAG is not based on any specific information; the numbers just seem ridiculously high to me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Or maybe more people have access to health care over there, and therefore are being identified?

[certainot]

18. you may have the right conclusion IMO

[BrendaBrick]

I agree on the over-diagnosis of some conditions.

Here's a YouTube video, around 45 minutes, but well worth the watch, IMO. I think that Bruce Levine, PhD really brings some important issues/trends to the fore as it relates to mental illness and the over-diagnosis (particularly with the youth) in the US, hence not surprising that Europe might follow along these same lines:

"Psychologist Bruce Levine: Surviving America's Depression Epidemic":

"Clinical psychologist Bruce Levine is the author of Common Sense Rebellion and Surviving America's Depression Epidemic. He regularly deals with "anti-authoritarian" clients who would be diagnosed by the health care authorities as suffering from "oppositional defiant disorder" or ADHD, and helps them to deal with adjusting to their societal, work or school environment without rebelling in a self-destructive manner.

In a psychiatric context, Levine explains how successful political movements like the American Revolution and the more recent populist uprising are historically led by people who have individual self-respect, something very much lacking in today's society, as well as collective confidence and trust in one another. "When you're living in a society that breaks people's self-respect and breaks their bonds of trust with one another, it makes it very difficult to have any kind of democratic revolutionary movement," remarks Levine.

Levine identifies the process of "learned helplessness" as one of the primary factors that has led to society feeling broken, demoralized, hopeless and defeated. He cites an experiment involving dogs where both groups of animals were subjected to electro-shocks, wherein one group of dogs was able to stop the electro-shocks and the other was not. The dogs not able to stop the shocks moved into passivity and depression, and even when presented with the opportunity to escape did not even try to take it because they had learned helplessness. Levine compares this to national elections, where people vote for either Democrats or Republicans but still end up with the same consequences, or don't vote whatsoever but still end up with the same consequences. "That's learned helplessness," explains Levine, "No matter what you do you're going to get that same degree of pain."

Levine compares the apathy and the lack of demonstrations against the 2000 election fraud controversy in the U.S. to similar examples in Mexico in Iran, where millions of people protest even though in doing so they are risking their lives. He identifies debt as a central contributor to people's apathy and how populations are broken. Unlike previous generations, every young person who leaves education is now saddled with an average of $20,000 of debt, and so are petrified of losing their job or having their benefits taken away, thus are far less likely to go out and protest against the system that holds them in bondage".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLNPQDdopFw

[adhd_what_huh]

50. the number is based on treatment and yes, they have much more

treatment...

[Demeter]

14. If 40% of the Population Has a Similarity, It's Not an Illness

unless it's infectious.

It's either a genetic population...

Or, it's a widespread result of delusional media propaganda twisting reality until mass psychosis (A severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality) results.

Rather like here in the US, in fact.

[ArcticFox]

31. You're right

Very rational analysis. Our culture has become the mental equivalent of living on a toxic waste dump.

[adhd_what_huh]

47. your wrong...in America we have weight related illness and we

refer to obesity as an illness and I would imagine more than 40% of us have it. Similarly there are anxiety and depressive mood disorders that are varied like OCD.

[man4allcats]

15. It's probably because

Americans are driving them and everyone else crazy. :banghead:

[Demeter]

16. Good chance of that!

[CJCRANE]

17. Unrec because anxiety and insomnia are not "brain disorders".

This seems to be catchall study that groups together unrelated conditions and illnesses.

[adhd_what_huh]

21. my anxiety is not a liver disorder...

[mwooldri]

30. anxiety and insomnia are symptoms.

Though I disagree with you because anxiety is a symptom of a wide array of brain disorders - unipolar depression, bipolar, general anxiety disorder, along with some others but these three top my list.

[CJCRANE]

38. Anxiety *can be* a symptom

of something serious but often it's just a negative emotion caused by external factors.

[originalpckelly]

40. No, it's a group of disorders:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety_disorder#Classification

[CJCRANE]

45. "Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor".

"Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor. It may help someone to deal with a difficult situation by prompting them to cope with it. When anxiety becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety

On edit: Although I concede that the study may be talking about diagnosed "anxiety disorders" not just everyday "anxiety".

[originalpckelly]

39. "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."

Sweetheart, that's a laugh in a half.

[wurzel]

22. It's all that Socialism! What utter bullshit! N/T

[sulphurdunn]

23. What do you expect

of a species whose cognitive functions probably evolved too fast to meld with its instincts and then further confused the issue by inventing culture? :shrug:

[Odin2005]

24. Dismissing anxiety disorders as "mental illnesses" allows the socioeconomic causes to be ignored.

It's much more profitable to just give out Prozac than fixing our sick society.

[Honeycombe8]

25. I'm sure the Repubs love that study. They hate Europe, so it would sense to them..

that most of them are "crazy."

[Codeine]

27. When you water down the definition of an illness such that 40% of a population has it

then your definition ceases to have any meaning whatsoever.

[woo me with science]

33. It's called expanding the market and profit base. nt

[adhd_what_huh]

52. Your knee jerk cynicism is getting kinda silly

[woo me with science]

53. You follow my posts, do you?

I'm honored. :eyes:

[adhd_what_huh]

55. only beause you follow me..

[woo me with science]

56. Um, I don't know who you are.

Huh?

[BOG PERSON]

28. First World Problems

[stockholmer]

34. The headline is pure bollocks, I have the link to the study, it includes many things that are not

mental illness, and these doctors and institutions they represent have a deep interest in constantly expanding the definition of 'mental illness' and oftentimes in the treatment of them with psychiatric drugs. There is no way that that the EU is almost 40% mentally ill. The overall satisfaction with life (at least pre austerity bankster power-grab- and ALL of the studies reviewed are pre-crisis) is leaps and bounds better than in most places.

Also, this study includes countries from the former eastern block such as Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania that have much a higher rate of problems historically over the last 100 years than the majority of the other core EU countries.

The study:

http://www.ecnp.eu/~/media/Files/ecnp/communication/reports/ECNP%20EBC%20Report.ashx


To arrive at the inflated number of 165 million they include the following so-called mental illnesses (bear in that this study is a review of previous studies and oftentimes counts a person as having a mental illness if they had any of these at one time in their life) :

Insomnia, cannabis use, dementias, stress, autism, lead-caused mental retardation, ADHD, somatoform disorders (such as hypochondria and unexplained physical pain), migraine headaches, the nebulous anxiety disorder category, etc.

In the studies own words:

"3. No indications were found for increasing or decreasing
rates of mental disorders from 2005 to 2011 when exactly
the same diagnoses are considered (27.4% in 2005 vs.
27.1% in 2011). Thus, the apparent increase in prevalence
is entirely due to including additional diagnoses."


120 million of the 165 million total come the following 3 categories:


29.1 million suffer insomnia

20.4 million show stress symptoms

69 million suffer anxiety disorders

-------------------------------------------

All in all, put me down as a sceptic.

[carla]

41. The rate of mental disorders and psychological syndromes

in Amsterdam is 24%...

[Odin2005]

44. Calling Autism a "mental illness" is idiotic, it's a neurological condition.

[HereSince1628]

57. Why is a neurological condition not a mental disorder?

Is your objection a general thing--a neurological condition also be a mental disorder, or is it a specific thing about autism not being a mental disorder?


BTW, the APA's DSM-IV revised is the standard diagnostic work for -mental disorders- in the U.S. and is used by psychologist, psychiatrists and insurance companies. The DSM-IV revised includes autism and autism spectrum disorders. So it seems that the American Psychological Association and the insurance companies that pay for treatment at least accept that autism is a mental disorder.

[Odin2005]

58. IMO a person can be pre-disposed for a mental illness, but the illness itself is triggered...

...by some psychological trigger from life experience. Neurological disorders are simply there and don't need a trigger.

Schizophrenia and Bipolar are the odd ones out because they sit on the fence between the two.

[HereSince1628]

60. Here are the core ideas for defining mental illness considered for DSM-V

(You'll note that mental functioning is the issue not whether an external trigger is required. This emphasis on "function" is a traditional approach in pathology. The use of function vs dysfunction as a standard for recognizing illness parallels the way other forms of illness/pathology are defined throughout medicine.)



A. A behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual,

B. that is based in a decrement or problem in one or more aspects of mental functioning, including but not limited to global functioning (e.g., consciousness, orientation, intellect, or temperament) or specific functioning (e.g., attention, memory, emotion, psychomotor, perception, thought),

C. that is not be merely an expectable response to common stressors and losses (for example, the loss of a loved one) or a culturally sanctioned response to a particular event (for example, trance states in religious rituals)

D. that is not primarily a consequence of social deviance or conflict with society


Other Considerations


E. that has diagnostic validity on the basis of various diagnostic validators (e.g., prognostic significance, psychobiological disruption, response to treatment), and

F. that is helpful in diagnostic conceptualization, assessment, and/or treatment-related decisions.

G. No definition of “medical disorder” or "mental (psychiatric, psychological) disorder” perfectly specifies precise boundaries for the concepts or can provide consistent operationalizations that cover all situations.

[adhd_what_huh]

54. numbers are not inflated

"counts a person as having a mental illness if they had any of these at one time in their life) :"

The good news is that if you are treated for an illness you can often beat the illness just like cancer. Just because you beat a cancer does not mean you never really had it.

[alp227]

43. according to Michael Savage or that comedian in the Palin rally, it's LIBERALISM! n/t

[Broderick]

51. I heard it correlates directly with the drop in religious attitude

Anyone can use the information to their benefit to sell a book so to speak.

[snooper2]

59. Oh jesus barbara christ...what happened to a mental illness

being that you actually had a "mental illness"


Not- Do you find it difficult to get going in the mornings?