Mental and behavioural disorder

The National Health Watch

MENTAL and behavioural disorders are common, affecting more than 25 per cent of all people at some time during their lives.
They are also universal, affecting people of all countries and societies, individuals at all ages, women and men, the rich and the poor, from urban and rural environments.
They have an economic impact on societies and on the quality of life of individuals and families.
Mental and behavioural disorders are present at any point in time in about 10 per cent of the adult population.
Around 20 per cent of all patients seen by primary health care professionals have one or more mental disorders.
One in four families is likely to have a least one member with a behavioural or mental disorder.
These families not only provide physical and emotional support, but also bear the negative impact of stigma and discrimination.
Common disorders, which usually cause severe disability, include depressive disorders, substance use disorders, schizophrenia, epilepsy, alzheimer’s disease, mental retardation, and disorders of childhood and adolescence.
Factors associated with the prevalence, onset and course of mental and behavioural disorders include poverty, sex, age, conflicts and disasters, major physical disease, and the family and social environment.
Identifying, diagnosing, and treating mental disorders are unique.
Mental and behavioural disorders are understood as clinically significant conditions characterised by altered thinking, mood and behaviour.
Not all human distress is mental disorder.
Individuals may be distressed because of personal or social circumstances unless all the essential criteria for a particular disorder are satisfied, such distress is not a mental disorder.
There is a difference, for example between depressed mood and diagnosable depression.
Culturally determined normal variations must not be labelled mental disorders nor can social religious or political beliefs be taken as evidence of mental disorders. Individuals may suffer from one or more disorders during their lives.
It is important to diagnose these conditions early so that the individual is not stigmatised.

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