Nearly 14% Indians are mentally ill, reveals Nimhans study

Bengaluru, Oct 12: A nationwide study conducted by National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (Nimhans) has revealed a shocking prevalence of mental illness in India. At least 13.7 per cent of India's general population has been projected to be suffering from a variety of mental illnesses; and 10.6 per cent of this requires immediate intervention.

In all, nearly 150 million Indians are in a need of active medical intervention, according to the study, submitted by Nimhans to the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Monday.

Concerned over the growing problem of mental health in India, the ministry had appointed Nimhans to study the mental health status in the country in 2014 to come up with stronger mental health policies.

The aim of the survey was to study the magnitude of the problem in the country when Dr P Satish Chandra was the director of Nimhans.

India was one of the first countries to develop a national mental health programme in the early 1980s, but there was no proper study to understand the spread and estimate of mental illness in the state.

Although a mental health survey was conducted almost a decade ago, there were several fallacies in that report. The report stated that the estimates at the national and state levels were not possible due to methodological limitations.

The current study, starting from data collection, was initiated in 2014. Through computer-generated random selection, primary data was collected from 12 states with a sample size of 34,802 people.

A pilot study was done in Kolar in Karnataka. It covered all important aspects of mental illness that included substance abuse, alcohol use disorder, tobacco use disorder, severe mental illness, depression, anxiety, phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, among others.

The prevalence of mental morbidity was found to be very high in the Indian urban centres with higher prevalence of schizophrenia, mood disorders and neurotic- or stress-related disorders.

Researchers have attributed the disturbing scenario to fast-paced lifestyles, stress, complexities of loving, breakdown of support systems and challenges of economic instability.

One of the biggest concerns emerging from the study is that despite three out of four persons experiencing severe mental disorders, huge treatment gaps exist.

Apart from epilepsy, the treatment gap for all mental health disorders is more than sixty per cent. In fact, the economic burden of mental disorders is so huge that affected families had to spend nearly Rs 1,000-1,500 a month mainly for treatment and to access care.

Due to the stigma attached with mental disorders, nearly 80 per cent of people suffering from mental disorders had not received any treatment despite being afflicted by the illness for over 12 months.

Poor implementation of programmes under the national mental health programme has been found to be the main culprit for this scenario.

They not only have a low priority in the public health agenda but the health information system itself does not prioritise mental health.

Not only is there a paucity of mental health specialists, the institutional care in India, too, has been found to be limited.

The researchers suggest that mental health financing needs to be streamlined. The other problems also include interrupted drug supply to treat mental illness.