Nearly 40 percent of Europeans suffer mental illness


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(Reuters) - 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.

With only about a third of cases receiving the therapy or medication needed, mental illnesses cause a huge economic and social burden -- measured in the hundreds of billions of euros -- as sufferers become too unwell to work and personal relationships break down.

"Mental disorders have become Europe's largest health challenge of the 21st century," the study's authors said.

"The immense treatment gap ... for mental disorders has to be closed," said Hans Ulrich Wittchen, director of the institute of clinical psychology and psychotherapy at Germany's Dresden University and the lead investigator on the European study.

"Those few receiving treatment do so with considerable delays of an average of several years and rarely with the appropriate, state-of-the-art therapies."

Mental illnesses are a major cause of death, disability, and economic burden worldwide and the World Health Organization predicts that by 2020, depression will be the second leading contributor to the global burden of disease across all ages.

Wittchen said that in Europe, that grim future had arrived early, with diseases of the brain already the single largest contributor to the EU's burden of ill health.

The four most disabling conditions -- measured in terms of disability-adjusted life years or DALYs, a standard measure used to compare the impact of various diseases -- are depression, dementias such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, alcohol dependence and stroke.

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OK, since Europeans love to generalize that all Americans are fat, does this now give Americans license to generalize all Europeans as crazy?? :woot:

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Seeing how countries such as Canada, the US, Australia and so on have European backgrounds...This isn't a good sign for the western countries lol :p Would help explain a few people I know though....

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OK, since Europeans love to generalize that all Americans are fat, does this now give Americans license to generalize all Europeans as crazy?? :woot:

All Americans are fat.

All Europeans are crazy.

All Muslims are Terrorist.

Apple fanboys are polite.

Neowin is tech news website.

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Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables ? slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy **** we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. We're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very ****ed off.

As for the study, I still believe that the citizens of the southern countries are much less depressed than those in the north.

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Wow, it was a joke! I was repeating the over-generalization some people have.

It may have went a bit wring.

We completely understood it and thought it was funny!!

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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
almost 165 million people or 38 percent of the population

165 million is not even close to being 38 percent of 514 million.

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Doesn't need any formal studies to state that very many people are totally bananas. The percentage will be different but Europe is just the scope of this particular study. Whole society is highly dysfunctional.

165 million is not even close to being 38 percent of 514 million.

Might be a misprint of 195.

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As for the study, I still believe that the citizens of the southern countries are much less depressed than those in the north.

The same could probably be said of the southern and northern states in the US as well. Although what does that say about Canadians and Alaskans?

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Well, this explains 38% of Neowin members ... :whistle:

Yes, I am KIDDING !

:laugh: I could not help but think the same thing. As a joke, of course. :shiftyninja:

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Who funded this study, big pharma? Looks like they'll have plenty of new customers...

Could it be that the people defining "mental illness" are the same people selling the "treatment" (pharmaceuticals)? If so, why would anyone trust them?

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