Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness

[FarCenter]

Europeans are plagued by mental and neurological illnesses, with almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population suffering each year from a brain disorder such as depression, anxiety, insomnia or dementia, according to a large new study.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44394646/ns/health-mental_health/

[xfundy]

1. Ah, they are benefitting from our largest import

Shameless marketing of meds directly to consumers, who diagnose themselves, and convince their MD to get them on something without a proper eval from a mental health expert. Epidemic here in 'Murrka.

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. Such marketing is largely illegal in most of Europe as far as I'm aware

you'll see adverts on the commercial television channels that say things like "talk to your doctor about erectile dysfunction/depression/etc" here in the UK, for instance, but they're not allowed to mention a specific medication.

[NightWatcher]

2. Is there a dif between "suffer" and "are diagnosed and drugged"?

If we all describe having a bad day, we could walk out with a script for potent pharmacologicals.

[drm604]

3. Suffering how badly and for how long?

The article seems kind of vague as far as what this study counts as mental illness. How many of us haven't occasionally suffered from insomnia, for example, or a little anxiety or depression?

[saras]

4. It's hardly worth a serious reply except to point to the corporate media/psychiatric state link

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that Breivik isn't one of them, but most progressives are?

[Starboard Tack]

5. Hardly competes with the 50% in the US who put Dubya in the White House twice

[FarLeftFist]

6. WAAY more than 40% of Americans are depressed.

[gateley]

7. Yeah, I was just wondering what the percentage here would be. nt

[FarLeftFist]

11. If you are in the bottom 90% in this country you are most likely somewhat depressed.

So probably around 80% of Americans are somewhat depressed.

[inna]

12. using the same methods/statistics, that is. I'm curious, as well. nt

[starroute]

20. Something posted the other day said 25% in the US each year

Which seems surprisingly lower -- unless the Europeans are getting him by the lack of sunlight over the winter. (I know that gives the Finns a particularly high rate of depression.)

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/09/03/cdc-statistics-mental-illness-in-the-us/

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a summary report yesterday detailing how the CDC measures mental illness in the U.S., and summary statistics from those measurements. Most of the information summarized in the report is not new, since it was previously published. What the report does do is bring a great deal of this information together in a single paper. . . .

According to a rigorous health survey conducted by the CDC in 2004, an estimated 25 percent of adults in the U.S. reported having a mental illness in the previous year. Lifetime prevalence rates of mental illness in the U.S. were around 50 percent when measured back in 2004. That means in a family of four, one of you likely has a mental illness.

[gateley]

30. I agree -- that does seem low. I would have expected around

60+%. I'm guessing, too, that if/as the economy worsens, it will become higher.

Interesting about the Finns. I'm from Seattle and a lot of people don't do well with the lack of sunlight (contrary to popular belief, Seattle doesn't get any more rain than other rainy locales, but it's the lack of days without sunshine that gives us that rep) and even some natives I know had to move to sunnier areas. I always think the gloom doesn't bother me, that it kind of matches my psyche, but I have to admit when the sun comes out I'm a lot nicer to everyone and much more tolerable to be around! :7

[LuvNewcastle]

8. +1

Depression is at least as big a problem as obesity in this country.

[lunasun]

16. either one could contribute to the other

[Odin2005]

10. Feeling down is not the same thing as full-blown clincal depression.

[Odin2005]

9. Or, more likely, the definition of "normal" as been more and more restricted.

if almost half of people are considered mentally ill then there is a problem with your definition.

I believe most of these mental illness cases are anxiety-related and treating these axiety disorders as purely mental rather than socioeconomic lets the PTB off the hook for giving us a sick society.

[PSPS]

13. Valid point. When does "mental illness" stop being mental illness? When over 50% have it?

[Union Scribe]

14. imo, it isn't about how many people feel a way

it should be about determining if someone is impacted by a mentality to the degree it impairs their functioning. If so, it's illness. Otherwise, call it eccentricity or whatever.

[tama]

19. Just individual symptoms

of collective mental disorder.

Society and culture out of tune.

[defendandprotect]

15. Any chance this was a Big Pharma study?

[lunasun]

17. Happy Shiny People they have a pill for that

The article mentions

Only early targeted treatment in the young will effectively prevent the risk of increasingly largely proportions of severely ill...patients in the future."

Everyone is a little crazy when they are young
so diagnose em and give em pill$

So many university/government experts are also getting corp money these days here why not in Eurpoe/UK?

[defendandprotect]

24. Seems Americans don't have time to question why there is so much sickness in America ....

on occasion I happen to see some of the drug ads --

"happy shiny people" skimming along on their pills while the narration suggests

harrowing possible complications --

The unwarranted and continuing trust in our medical system is alarming!



:hi:

[The Doctor.]

22. Someone's ahead of the curve.

An American 'news' source commenting on 'Europeans'?

NO! :glasses:

[defendandprotect]

29. No Novartis involvement .... ? hmmm.....

At the same time, some big drug companies are backing away from investment in research on how the brain works and affects behavior, putting the onus on governments and health charities to stump up funding for neuroscience.

Wittchen led a three-year study covering 30 European countries -- the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Iceland and Norway -- and a population of 514 million people.
Wittchen's team looked at about 100 illnesses covering all major brain disorders from anxiety and depression to addiction to schizophrenia, as well as major neurological disorders including epilepsy, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis.

[The Doctor.]

21. Rarely do I unrec anything. I generally love information...

But this is hysterical when held up to the standard by which pharmaceutical companies peg Americans.

IOW: It's all bullshit. 'Europeans' are just fine by any standard. Better than us by far when it comes to actual 'mental disorder'.

Now, once we track 'mental illness' with direct regard to economic insecurity, We'll discover every single fucking time that pharma makes a mint on economic depression, then perhaps we'll start dealing directly with the lobbyists that make such things a reality.

Unfortunately, the people who are most likely to take action most uncivilized are very much in the thrall of the very lobbies that fuck us all.

The civilized are helpless against the tide of money and the barbarism that it brings.

[defendandprotect]

27. +100% -- the public's trust in medical systems is alarming!!

Like other research/science -- which has made childbirth into an illness --

and where DNA studies will probably one day identify "poverty" as a genetic disease --

the public needs to wake up -- !!

[The Doctor.]

23. Hey! Farcenter! I've seen you around a bit.

I'd love to have a chat, but your profile is shut off.

Why is that?

Please let us know. I'd feel stupid if I couldn't say 'hi' more personally.

[ThoughtCriminal]

25. When you inlcude things like insomnia

I'm surprised that it's only 38%.

If you haven't lost some sleep in the past year, you're living in a bubble.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Funny, I was just there, and people seemed pretty normal to me

Far fewer crazy people in the streets, for one thing. On nice days, they were out enjoying life.

[defendandprotect]

28. Obviously, people who react to economic depression and "austerity" programs have to be nuts!!

:evilgrin:

[Rex]

31. Impossible.