Community | September 10, 2009 | 17 comments

Is Mental Illness more Common than we Think?

source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/du-cmd091009.php

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DeliaTheArtist
"The prevalence of anxiety, depression and substance dependency may be twice as high as the mental health community has been led to believe.

It depends on how one goes about measuring.

Duke University psychologists Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi and colleagues from the United Kingdom and New Zealand used a long-term tracking study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 32 to reach the conclusion that people vastly underreport the amount of mental illness they've suffered when asked to recall their history years after the fact.

But such self-reporting from memory is the basis of much of what we know about the prevalence of anxiety, depression, alcohol dependence and marijuana dependence. Longitudinal studies like the Dunedin Study in New Zealand that track people over time are rare and expensive, Moffitt said.

"If you start with a group of children and follow them their whole lives, sooner or later almost everybody will experience one of these disorders," said Moffitt, the Knut Schmitt-Nielsen professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke.

The Great Smoky Mountains Study, a similar effort based at Duke, has tracked 1,400 American children from age 9-13 into their late 20s and found similar patterns, said Jane Costello, a professor medical psychology at Duke who runs the study.

"I think we've got to get used to the idea that mental illness is actually very common," Costello said. "People are growing up impaired, untreated and not functioning to their full capacity because we've ignored it."

"Researchers might begin to ask why so many people experience a disorder at least once during their lifetimes and what this means for the way we define mental health, deliver services and count the economic burdens of mental illness," Moffitt said.

On the one hand, it could be argued that the diagnostic standards have been set too low if so many people can be considered mentally ill. On the other hand, perhaps these findings argue for more and better mental health care because the disorders are more common than anyone had realized.

"There are two opposing camps, and I'm agnostic about that," Moffitt said.

At the very least, maybe these findings can help reduce the stigma against mental illness and mental health care, Moffitt added. New Zealand, for example, has begun a new campaign of public service announcements featuring sports heroes saying they've experienced mental health issues.

"If we're serious about this problem, we need to get serious about preventing it," Costello added. "We do know a lot more about prevention now."
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17 comments // Is Mental Illness more Common than we Think?

  • thewhompus
    • 0
      thewhompus  

    • I know this is 3 months old, but I'm to leave a comment here since the article sits near the top of the 'advocacy' group.

      We, as a society, really need to look at the usage of the words 'illness' and 'disorder', particualrly with minor things like depression, anxiety, etc. - these things are normal reactions to normal life challenges like grief and loss, the loss of work, moving to a new town, etc. As such, it seems silly to call these disorders and illnesses. They are natural processes that need to be ENCOURAGED rather than suppressed. It's precisely the social pressure leveled against people in such circumstances that causes the suppression and aggravates their emotional stability. They need to be supported through these issues, not drugged into zombiehood and hidden from society.

      And I think this applies to ALL psychological disorders. I'm not saying that there's no such thing as mental illness, but it IS possible for a schizophrenic to live a relatively happy and normal life, but they need the help of their community to do so. The capacity to maintain a social support system is the #1 indicator of a persons capacity to live successfully with an 'illness'.

    • 2 years ago
  • boywhocould
    • 0
      boywhocould  

    • remember the mind is molded by two things 1: its makup 2: the paterns it forms from what it is shown. I blame a large portion on our values, or lack there of. In order to reign in the masses we create personae and attempt to direct people into them. everything from ads trying to sell you something to you guidance councilor in school showing you a list of "successful" occupations. its largely about socioengineering, old precepts like divide and conquer, appeasement, and subterfuge, are easier when the whole world is an "individual" but at once also in groups, its the best of both worlds as you can accomplish an agenda more completely. the problem, or at least when this conditioning fails, is that sometimes people begin to question themselves and what they believe, taken to an extreme you can see how this could form a "Non" sanity couple that with an "Everest"ian mountain of people raging toward what some one would perceive as unacceptable, a desperation can form wanting to make sense of the situation, and desperate times breed desperate acts

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
  • NeutronActivation
    • 0
      NeutronActivation  

    • Well let's see..... as far as humanity goes as a whole we keep doing the same stuff thinking the outcome will change.

      1) Everyone one of us thinks they are right and most everyone else is wrong regardless of how ludicrous our position is. Few of us can see beyond this bias.

      2) We poop where we eat

      3) We think war brings peace

      4) Dog killing pro football player Michael Vick is sentenced to speak to school children while a Harvard educated President is reviled for his same efforts.

      5) We think our "fish bowl" has an unlimited capacity to contain and support us. As a matter of fact many of our major religions preach it.

      6) Speaking of religion most of the world believes in some variation of mythology based on nothing more than a claim found in ancient oral traditions. Some people believe in these myths so deeply they can suspend all logic and deny scientific evidence in their quest for "heaven".

      8) We think the best way to rehabilitate criminals is to lock them all up together in "gladiator schools" for nonviolent offenses then we wonder why they are violent and crazy when they get out.

      9) On the flip side we think the best way to punish celebrities and politicians for their criminal activity is reality shows and reelection.

      10) And last but not least we park in driveways and drive on parkways.... need I say more!

    • 2 years ago
  • hunzedog
  • boywhocould
  • CalPerr
  • peacelovenweed
  • spacemikey
  • CalPerr
  • jac1992
  • evilliberalbastard
  • evilliberalbastard
  • carmalite
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  

    • The best way to treat mental illness is the same method used as the best way to avoid it. Live a clean life. If we as a culture realize that God gave us the power to overcome all obstacles put in our path as ways to test us and make us stronger(natural selection), then we're OK. A problem is never a problem if you can solve it. It's only an opportunity to adapt to make yourself stronger. How many people could rightfuly be considered mental ill if they eat the optimum diet, get enough restful sleep, and develop good work habits, virtues, and avoid toxins ? One of our Current.com members enumerated, by making all the logical connections of thought, that a thought will
      eventualy translate into one's future. And he did it so perfectly, that there's no doubt 1.he's superintelligent. and 2. He's likely not mentaly ill. Not if understands the concept of mind over matter, and that free will can
      lead a person to their own life's opersonal triumph whatever the burden they have to shoulder. I saw one of my favorite episodes of Stargate SG1 this evening entitled chain reaction. In it, Beau Bridges quoted Winston Churchill: "Sucess is not final. Failure is not fatal. The essential thing that's realy important for every human is to simply maintain the courage to go on in the face of adversity-even overwhelming odds"
      Something to think about. I collect inspirational quotes
      because they fuel the Psyche(Supermind). One of the ones I recall parallels what Churchill uttered. " Life either expands or contracts in direct proportion to the
      courage which every human exerts on it" A person who is mentaly ill will not be able to communicate coherently with those who are well adjusted. Do my words sound incoherent to you Current.com news community members reading this ? I carry a special gene which wired my brain differently than ordinary people. This trait is shared by many of the more noteworthy musicians,composers, sculpters, painters, and writers throughout History. It comes with the territory. Because of outside overwhelming stresors I could not immediately adjust to, I was once
      diagnosed as scitzophrenic, and manic depressive. I learned how to heal myself and eliminate those afflictions. Even though those outside overwhelming stressors are even worse now. And I'm much older. How ? College training in Logic & Syllogisms...Trancendental Meditation. LSD, then Cannabis. Redeveloping good living habits & virtue.
      Karma means what goes around comes around. If you do good deeds for others you will be rewarded 10 fold. Audax Fortuna Benificat as the ancients used to say. From the more modern movie the 13th Warrior: " Luck will carry a man if his courage holds"
      Even those whom others categorize as "mentaly ill" can learn how do do as one of our founding fathers, John Adams did: Read, Think. Speak. Then write, and pass it on..

    • 2 years ago
  • good_stuff
  • CalPerr
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