Mental health issues are a commonplace in the United States. According to (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018), an estimated 50% of the residents of the United States have been diagnosed with a mental disorder at some point in their entire life. The burden of mental disorders is very difficult to quantify since the diagnosis of the various psychiatric conditions is a continuum or a spectrum. Mental disorders vary from person to person and from time to time.
Congress has shown an interest in mental health and mental illness, and in understanding how many people have mental illness which will help them to address related policy issues. Various federally funded surveys ( Bagalman & Cornell, 2018) have been conducted between 2001 and 2018 which show the evolving trend of the effects of mental illness on the population of America.
According to The National Institute of Mental Health ( NIMH, 2018),one in five residents of the USA experience a mental disorder in any given year costing more than 193.2 billion in lost earnings through loss of productivity. Nearly 60% of Americans with a mental disorder didn’t receive mental health services in a given year.
Two healthcare legislative bills (“Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act” (H.R. 2646) and the “Mental Health Reform Act of 2015” (S. 1945)) have been passed to improve the nation’s mental health system. They will help increase access to mental health care, especially for the low-income adults with serious mental illness. This will likely help homeless people too since approximately 26% of homeless adults staying in shelters live with serious mental illness (Clay, 2015).
Another issue that needs immediate attention is the co-occurring mental health and addiction disorders. Approximately 10.2 million American with mental health disorders are more likely to experience an alcohol or substance use disorder. Untreated co-occurring disorders can lead to increased risk of homelessness, imprisonment, physical illnesses, or even suicide. 90% of American who die of suicide have an underlying mental illness. It is the 10thleading cause of death in US.
Development of new and effective treatments for mental disorders is quite challenging. However, there are 135 medicines currently in development by pharmaceutical research companies to help more than 40 million Americans suffering some form of mental disorder – from schizophrenia to depression, and from anxiety to addictive disorders from drugs or alcohol (Adis Insight, 2016).
A STUDY ON MENTAL DISORDERS 