While women are more prone to suffer from depression, neurotic, phobic anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders, increasing number of men are detected with severe mental disorders like schizophrenia, other non-affective psychoses and bipolar affective disorders in India.
The new comprehensive analysis conducted by Bengaluru-based National Institute of Mental health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), released by the government on Monday, has revealed that nearly 15% of Indian adults (those above 18 years) are in need of active interventions for one or more mental health issues.
The study found that nearly 1 in 40 and 1 in 20 suffer from past and current depression, respectively.
Significantly, it is found that “mood disorder” is widely prevalent in women aged between 40-49 years while equally high rates of depression were reported among the elderly (3.5%). Even as mental disorders affect more adults in urban areas, the overall prevalence of mental morbidity was higher among males (13.9%) than females (7.5%).
The study looked at 34,802 adults and 1,191 adolescents from 12 states. Experts established that schizophrenia and other psychoses (0.64%), mood disorders (5.6%) and neurotic or stress-related disorders (6.93%) were nearly 2-3 times more among urban population.
“The burden is expected to rise and, hence, there is a need for an urban specific mental health programme,” said a senior official in the health ministry.
As per the report, common mental disorders (CMDs), including depression, anxiety disorders and substance use disorders are a huge burden affecting nearly 10.0% of the population.
Significantly, substance use disorders (alcohol, tobacco and other drugs) was found prevalent in 22.4 % of the population above 18 years in all the 12 surveyed states. The prevalence of alcohol use disorders in males was 9% as against 0.5% in females.
Nearly 1% of the population reported high suicidal risk, with the prevalence more in the 40-49 age group (1.19%).