Interesting Statistics About Mental Illness

I am fascinated by statistics. A few numbers can at times provide a very vivid picture, point out a problem, cause alarm or even disbelief. I started researching some of the statistics on mental illness and was blown away by some of the stuff the numbers revealed. Anyway here is some of the stuff I dug up in case anyone else is curious.

...oh and on the lighter side my favourite statistic is that half the people in the world are below average.
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* Every 18 minutes someone in the U.S. dies by suicide.

*40% of homeless people in America suffer serious and persistent mental illness.

*20% of children in America suffer from a diagnosable psychiatric illness and less than 20% of those children get therapeutic intervention.

*10.7% of all physician visits are for mental health issues.

*More than 90% of people who kill themselves had been diagnosed with a mental disorder.

*Data developed by the Global Burden of Disease Study conducted by the World Health Organization, World Bank and Harvard University revealed that mental illnesses including suicide accounts for 15% of the burden of disease in established market economies such as the U.S. This is MORE than the disease burden caused by all cancers.

*Nearly twice as many women as men suffer from major depressive disorder. Men and women suffer bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in equal numbers.

*The highest rate of suicide in the U.S. is in white men over the age of 85 years.

*Depression affects 1 in 5 older people living in the community and 2 in 5 in assisted living facilities.

*90% of prison inmates in Britain have a psychiatric disorder.

*People with a current mental health problem are 20 times more likely than others to report having harmed themselves in the past.

*More than 70% of the U.S. prison population has 2 or more psychiatric disorders. Male prisoners are 14 times more likely than the general population to have a psychiatric disorder and female prisoners are 35 times more likely to have a psychiatric disorder.

*Mental health problems now account for 30-40 percent of disability claims reported by Canada's major insurers and employers.

*Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death in 15-24 year olds.

*Half the people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have no insurance.

*The average person diagnosed with bipolar disorder receives 3.5 misdiagnoses and consults 4 physicians before obtaining an accurate diagnosis.

*1 in 5 people (20%) with bipolar disorder commit suicide. This is 30 times higher than in the general population.

*More Americans suffer from depression (20.9 million), than from heart disease (7 million), cancer (6 million), and AIDS (200,000) combined.

*Contrary to popular belief, suicide rates are lowest in winter and highest in spring.

*4 times as many men die of suicide than women but women attempt suicide 2-3 times as often as men.

*65% of boys and 75% of girls in juvenile detention have at least one psychiatric diagnosis.

*45% of people with mental illness meet the criteria for 2 or more psychiatric disorders.

*Life expectancy of an adult with serious mental illness is 25 years shorter than that of a person without mental illness.

*70-75% of people with bipolar disorder have been misdiagnosed at least once.

*Statistically people with a mental illness are far more likely to be a victim of violence than to be violent.

*Average age of onset of bipolar disorder is 23 and average age of correct diagnosis is 40.

*13% of people with long term mental illness also suffer from migraines.

*Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in 15-44 year olds in Canada.

*50% of bipolar people are not receiving treatment at any given time.
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So those are the numbers I discovered...a pretty bleak picture, but one that people should see.

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