13% of Global Disease Burden Due To Mental, Nervous System & Substance Use Disorders

About 13% of the global burden of disease is due to mental illness, nervous system disorders (such as dementia and Parkinson’s disease), or substance use. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Burden of Disease report, the global population in 2004 was approximately 6.5 billion; about 18.6 million people (2.9%) were severely disabled and another 79.7 million (12.4%) had moderate long-term disability. Among the Top 20 global disorders, depression was the third, directly after hearing and vision problems. Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and panic disorder were among the other . . .