Mental Illness Fact Sheet

• Mental illnesses are medical illnesses that can often profoundly disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood and ability to relate to others. Mental illnesses include such illnesses as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders including post-traumatic stress disorder, addictive disorders such as drug and alcohol abuse and other severe and persistent mental illnesses, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
• Mental illness and its stigma afflict one in every five Americans, according to the 1999 U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health—not to mention their families and professional and social networks. Because of the stigma that still surrounds the disease, many people don’t seek the help they need from the treatment available.
• By 2020, mental illness is predicted to be the second leading cause of premature death and disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Major depressive illness will be the leading cause of disability in the world for women and children.
• The most serious and disabling conditions affect about 6 percent—or one in 17—adults and 9 to 13 percent of children in the United States. Half of all lifetime conditions of mental illness start by age 14 years and three-fourths by age 24 years, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
• Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people ages 15 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Mental illness can strike anyone, regardless of age, economic status, race, creed or education. Half of all Americans will experience a brain, behavior or addictive disorder at some point in their lives, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Nearly half of people who have mental illness have two or more disorders, according to a 2005 study in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
• The federal government has designated more than 1,600 urban, suburban and rural communities as Mental Health Professionals Shortage Areas for psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses and other professionals to serve children and adults.
• Four of the six leading causes of years lived with disability are due to neuropsychiatric disorders (i.e., depression, drug-and alcohol-use disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), according to the World Health Organization.
• One in four persons visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioral disorder, but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated, according to the World Health Organization.