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The Burden of Mental Disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990-2013

Charara, Raghid ; Forouzanfar, Mohammad ; Naghavi, Mohsen ; Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar ; Afshin, Ashkan ; Vos, Theo ; Daoud, Farah ; Wang, Haidong ; El Bcheraoui, Charbel and Khalil, Ibrahim , et al. (2017) In PLoS ONE 12(1).
Abstract

The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is witnessing an increase in chronic disorders, including mental illness. With ongoing unrest, this is expected to rise. This is the first study to quantify the burden of mental disorders in the EMR. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) 2013. DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) allow assessment of both premature mortality (years of life lost-YLLs) and nonfatal outcomes (years lived with disability-YLDs). DALYs are computed by adding YLLs and YLDs for each age-sex-country group. In 2013, mental disorders contributed to 5.6% of the total disease burden in the EMR (1894 DALYS/100,000 population): 2519 DALYS/100,000 (2590/100,000 males, 2426/100,000 females) in high-income... (More)

The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is witnessing an increase in chronic disorders, including mental illness. With ongoing unrest, this is expected to rise. This is the first study to quantify the burden of mental disorders in the EMR. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) 2013. DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) allow assessment of both premature mortality (years of life lost-YLLs) and nonfatal outcomes (years lived with disability-YLDs). DALYs are computed by adding YLLs and YLDs for each age-sex-country group. In 2013, mental disorders contributed to 5.6% of the total disease burden in the EMR (1894 DALYS/100,000 population): 2519 DALYS/100,000 (2590/100,000 males, 2426/100,000 females) in high-income countries, 1884 DALYS/100,000 (1618/100,000 males, 2157/100,000 females) in middle-income countries, 1607 DALYS/100,000 (1500/100,000 males, 1717/100,000 females) in low-income countries. Females had a greater proportion of burden due to mental disorders than did males of equivalent ages, except for those under 15 years of age. The highest proportion of DALYs occurred in the 25-49 age group, with a peak in the 35-39 years age group (5344 DALYs/100,000). The burden of mental disorders in EMR increased from 1726 DALYs/100,000 in 1990 to 1912 DALYs/100,000 in 2013 (10.8% increase). Within the mental disorders group in EMR, depressive disorders accounted for most DALYs, followed by anxiety disorders. Among EMR countries, Palestine had the largest burden of mental disorders. Nearly all EMR countries had a higher mental disorder burden compared to the global level. Our findings call for EMR ministries of health to increase provision of mental health services and to address the stigma of mental illness. Moreover, our results showing the accelerating burden of mental health are alarming as the region is seeing an increased level of instability. Indeed, mental health problems, if not properly addressed, will lead to an increased burden of diseases in the region.

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Contribution to journal
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PLoS ONE
volume
12
issue
1
article number
e0169575
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • pmid:28095477
  • scopus:85009892168
  • wos:000392372300025
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0169575
language
English
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yes
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e3c9cfb9-69f4-4444-82cc-38020f47f9e2
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2017-01-21 12:45:01
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@article{e3c9cfb9-69f4-4444-82cc-38020f47f9e2,
  abstract     = {{<p>The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is witnessing an increase in chronic disorders, including mental illness. With ongoing unrest, this is expected to rise. This is the first study to quantify the burden of mental disorders in the EMR. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) 2013. DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) allow assessment of both premature mortality (years of life lost-YLLs) and nonfatal outcomes (years lived with disability-YLDs). DALYs are computed by adding YLLs and YLDs for each age-sex-country group. In 2013, mental disorders contributed to 5.6% of the total disease burden in the EMR (1894 DALYS/100,000 population): 2519 DALYS/100,000 (2590/100,000 males, 2426/100,000 females) in high-income countries, 1884 DALYS/100,000 (1618/100,000 males, 2157/100,000 females) in middle-income countries, 1607 DALYS/100,000 (1500/100,000 males, 1717/100,000 females) in low-income countries. Females had a greater proportion of burden due to mental disorders than did males of equivalent ages, except for those under 15 years of age. The highest proportion of DALYs occurred in the 25-49 age group, with a peak in the 35-39 years age group (5344 DALYs/100,000). The burden of mental disorders in EMR increased from 1726 DALYs/100,000 in 1990 to 1912 DALYs/100,000 in 2013 (10.8% increase). Within the mental disorders group in EMR, depressive disorders accounted for most DALYs, followed by anxiety disorders. Among EMR countries, Palestine had the largest burden of mental disorders. Nearly all EMR countries had a higher mental disorder burden compared to the global level. Our findings call for EMR ministries of health to increase provision of mental health services and to address the stigma of mental illness. Moreover, our results showing the accelerating burden of mental health are alarming as the region is seeing an increased level of instability. Indeed, mental health problems, if not properly addressed, will lead to an increased burden of diseases in the region.</p>}},
  author       = {{Charara, Raghid and Forouzanfar, Mohammad and Naghavi, Mohsen and Moradi-Lakeh, Maziar and Afshin, Ashkan and Vos, Theo and Daoud, Farah and Wang, Haidong and El Bcheraoui, Charbel and Khalil, Ibrahim and Hamadeh, Randah R and Khosravi, Ardeshir and Rahimi-Movaghar, Vafa and Khader, Yousef and Al-Hamad, Nawal and Makhlouf Obermeyer, Carla and Rafay, Anwar and Asghar, Rana and Rana, Saleem M and Shaheen, Amira and Abu-Rmeileh, Niveen M E and Husseini, Abdullatif and Abu-Raddad, Laith J and Khoja, Tawfik and Al Rayess, Zulfa A and AlBuhairan, Fadia S and Hsairi, Mohamed and Alomari, Mahmoud A and Ali, Raghib and Roshandel, Gholamreza and Terkawi, Abdullah Sulieman and Hamidi, Samer and Refaat, Amany H and Westerman, Ronny and Kiadaliri, Aliasghar Ahmad and Akanda, Ali S and Ali, Syed Danish and Bacha, Umar and Badawi, Alaa and Bazargan-Hejazi, Shahrzad and Faghmous, Imad A D and Fereshtehnejad, Seyed-Mohammad and Fischer, Florian and Jonas, Jost B and Kuate Defo, Barthelemy and Mehari, Alem and Omer, Saad B and Pourmalek, Farshad and Uthman, Olalekan A and Mokdad, Ali A and Maalouf, Fadi T and Abd-Allah, Foad and Akseer, Nadia and Arya, Dinesh and Borschmann, Rohan and Brazinova, Alexandra and Brugha, Traolach S and Catalá-López, Ferrán and Degenhardt, Louisa and Ferrari, Alize and Haro, Josep Maria and Horino, Masako and Hornberger, John C and Huang, Hsiang and Kieling, Christian and Kim, Daniel and Kim, Yunjin and Knudsen, Ann Kristin and Mitchell, Philip B and Patton, George and Sagar, Rajesh and Satpathy, Maheswar and Savuon, Kim and Seedat, Soraya and Shiue, Ivy and Skogen, Jens Christoffer and Stein, Dan J and Tabb, Karen M and Whiteford, Harvey A and Yip, Paul and Yonemoto, Naohiro and Murray, Christopher J L and Mokdad, Ali H}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{The Burden of Mental Disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990-2013}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169575}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0169575}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}