Mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders, impose an enormous global disease burden that leads to premature mortality and affects functioning and quality of life. If left untreated, mental disorders can result in worse treatment adherence and outcomes for commonly co-occurring diseases, such as tuberculosis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Yet parity between mental and physical health conditions remains a distant ideal. Poor mental health also impacts on economic development through lost production and consumption opportunities at both the individual and societal level.
Authors: Arthur Kleinman, Georgia Lockwood Estrin, Shamaila Usmani, Dan Chisholm, Patricio V Marquez, Tim G Evans, Shekhar Saxena. For full text
