October 4, 2001 GENEVA (AP) - One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or brain disorders during their lives, but few of these will seek - far less receive - help, the World Health Organization said.
Currently 450 million people suffer from conditions such as depression, schizophrenia or dementia, making mental and neurological illness one of the top causes of ill-health. But despite this, about 40 percent of countries have no mental health policy, it said.
Two thirds of countries spent 1 percent or less of their health budget on mental health, and half had only one psychiatrist per 100,000 people.
"Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope," was the theme of the U.N. agency's annual health report in a bid to increase awareness of the scope of the problem and the possibilities for change.
"Mental illness is not a personal failure," said WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland. "If there is a failure it is to be found in the way we have responded to people with mental and brain disorders."
With the proper treatment, people suffering from mental disorders could lead productive lives and be a vital part of their communities, the report said.
More than 80 percent of people with schizophrenia could be free of relapses at the end of one year of treatment with anti-psychotic drugs combined with family support. Up to 60 percent of sufferers of depression could recover with a proper combination of antidepressants and therapy. Up to 70 percent of people with epilepsy could be seizure free when treated with simple, inexpensive anti-convulsants, it said.
But despite the availability of help, nearly two thirds of people with a known mental disorder never sought professional help either through shame or lack of access.
The report said one million people committed suicide every year, while 10 to 20 million attempted to kill themselves.
The poor were worst hit. "The lack of access to affordable treatment makes the course of the illness more severe and debilitating, leading to a vicious circle of poverty and mental health disorders that is rarely broken," WHO said.
The health agency urged governments to draw up better policies on mental problems, including those to tackle alcohol and drug abuse.
It said governments should take note of experience and shift away from large psychiatric hospitals, which were too restrictive and prone to human rights abuses, and introduce better community care programs.
More should be done to ensure availability of essential psychotropic medicines, it said. About 25 percent of countries don't have the three most commonly prescribed medicines to treat schizophrenia, depression and epilepsy.
The expiry of patents on older versions meant that these drugs were now available more cheaply than in the past.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
