Jan 27 2009
Mental Health Among Adults In England, 2007
The latest news - from Medical News Today - shows approximately one person in four had some psychiatric disorder in 2007, according to NatCen (National Centre for Social Research) in collaboration with the University of Leicester for the NHS Information Centre for health and social care. The figures seem to be broken down into those with a common mental disorder (such as depression or anxiety) and those with a “more severe psychiatric disorder”. Personality disorders (well, borderline and antisocial, at least) did get mentioned- at 0.4% & 0.3% prevalence respectively - but the abstract seems to cloud more than it reveals. There seems no breakdown between psychological and psychiatric disorders, although PTSD is mentioned in passing.
What is quite shocking is the rate for treatment:
Problem % Treated
psychotic disorder 65% 2 in 3
neurotic symptoms 32% 1 in 3
mixed anxiety 15% 1 in 6
and depression
These figures are quite shaming: how so many people who have been through the psychiatric sausage machine and diagnosed but have not been deemed worthy of treatment is scandalous. Either the Health Service is so massively underfunded that one of the most common causes of ill-health has to be rationed to many on grounds of cost and a large number of suffers consigned to an unsupported, bleak and frightening future, or those diagnosed with mental health difficulties are not considered worthy of treatment or even treatable. These figures only show those who have actually been diagnosed and took part in the survey - how many more are suffering in silence is unknown.
I shall try to find the raw data, as these findings appear to beggar belief.
Sources:
Mental Health Among Adults In England, 2007
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136746.php
National Centre for Social Research
http://www.natcen.ac.uk/
More reports at
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/PublishedSurvey/ListOfSurveySince1990/Surveylistmentalhealth/
