UCSC; PSYCH 169; FALL, 2005

GENEVA (AP) - One in four people in the world will be affected by mental health or brain
disorders during their lives, but few of them will seek or receive help, the World Health
Organization said Thursday.

Some 450 million people suffer from mental and neurological conditions such as depression,
schizophrenia and dementia. 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.

The report also gave statistics showing the number of years spent in reasonably good
health.

The Japanese had the highest healthy-life expectancy rates at 73.8 years, followed by
Switzerland at 72.1 and San Marino at 72. Average healthy-life expectancy in the United
States was 67.2 years.

Sierra Leone was at the bottom of the list with just 29.5 years of reasonable health.

``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 with mental illness can lead productive lives and be vital
parts 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 and adequate family support. Up to 60
percent of sufferers of depression could recover with the proper combination of
antidepressants and therapy. Up to 70 percent of epileptics could be seizure free if treated
with simple, inexpensive anti-convulsants, it said.

But even when help is available, nearly two thirds of people with a known mental disorder
never seek professional help, often because of shame.

The report said one million people committed suicide every year, while 10 to 20 million
attempted to kill themselves.

The poor were hardest 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 agency urged governments to draw up better policies on mental problems, including
alcohol and drug abuse.

It said governments should shift away from large psychiatric hospitals, which are too
restrictive and prone to human rights abuses, and introduce better community care
programs.

More should be done to ensure availability of essential medicines, it said. About 25 percent of
countries don't have the three most commonly prescribed drugs to treat schizophrenia,
depression and epilepsy.

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