World mental health today: latest data

The covid-19 pandemic intensified existing gender disparities in mental health. According to a 2021 article from The Lancet looking at the global burden of mental disorders, major depressive disorders rose by 29.8 per cent, while anxiety disorders rose by 27.9 per cent among women in 2020. Corresponding increases among men were recorded to be 24 per cent and 21.7 per cent respectively.

The Global Burden of Disease 2021 study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation noted that around 7 per cent of the world’s children (aged 5-9 years) and 14 per cent of adolescents (aged 10-19 years) lived with a mental disorder.

Recorded prevalence of mental disorders can vary considerably by WHO region and is influenced by a variety of factors including sociocultural factors, data availability, demographics, as well risk and protective factors.

Across every WHO region since 2001, mental disorders have become more widespread, with the Americas and Europe reporting the most pronounced growth from 15.3 to 17.1 per cent and from 14 to 15.4 per cent respectively.

Depressive disorders and anxiety disorders were the second and fifth leading causes of global years lived with disability. The report identifies childhood sexual abuse, being a victim of bullying and intimate partner violence as three important risk factors for these disorders, addressing which can lower disease burden.

Mental health conditions can bring heavy economic strain on countries, the report says.  Analyses in seven countries – Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe – calculated their burden at about 0.5-1 per cent of their gross domestic product, largely due to productivity losses.

Mental Health Atlas 2024 showed that 82 per cent of responding countries included mental health in their publicly funded health or financial protection schemes. However, the percentage varied widely from 42 per cent among low-income countries and 72 per cent among lower-middle-income countries to 95 per cent and 93 per cent among upper-middle and high-income countries respectively.

Interestingly, the 2024 atlas also showed that only 18 per cent of responding countries had allocated human resources for mental health policies or plans.

According to a 2022 review of 112 national essential medicine lists, up to 40 per cent of low-income countries excluded long established essential psychotropic medicines including long-acting fluphenazine for schizophrenia and lithium carbonate mood stabilizer for bipolar disorder. This was despite them being on the WHO Model list for essential medicines for decades. The report further states that in some cases, the lack of laboratory facilities needed for safe monitoring use of these drugs may have contributed to these gaps.

The report says that as of 2025, with the 2030 deadline of Sustainable Development Goals approaching, global progress remains insufficient to achieve target 3.4 – promoting mental health and well-being along with the reduction of premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases and suicide.

Focus and Factoids by Nikita Mallick.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.