Amin A Muhammad Gadit.
Economics in mental health: should investment be made?.
J Pak Med Assoc Jan ;62(3):300-1.

According to W.H.O., depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. One in 4 people will be affected by a mental disorder at some point in their lives. Every 40 seconds someone commits suicide, 4 out of 5 people with mental disorders in developing countries don\'t receive treatment and 50% of all mental disorders begin before the age of 14. The other facts mentioned are:2 spending on mental health is less than two US dollars per person, per year and less than 25 cents in low income countries, on average, there is one psychiatrist or less to serve 200,000 people, only 36% of people living in low income countries are covered by mental health legislation whereas coverage in this respect is 92% for high income countries, 63% of psychiatric beds are located in mental hospitals and 67% of mental health spending is directed towards these institutions. It was also noted that there was a modest decrease in mental hospital beds from 2005-2011 at the global level. The World Federation of Mental Health (WFMH)3 has adopted the theme for this year as "The Great Push: Investing in Mental Health" with major focus and global call for investment in mental health. The WFMH makes arguments on the basis that: burden of mental health is huge and the costs to society are enormous, it is essential for economic development, without mental health interventions, costs of care and treatment increase, inaction related to mental health generates additional current and future costs with the bottom line issue as \'not investing in mental health is very expensive\'. The document further states that in countries where cost studies have been done, mental health problems account for 2.5 to 3.5% of the Gross National Product. It quotes the cost for U.S. $148 billion and for Canada $ 14.4 billion. Accordingly, low and middle income countries currently allocate less than 2% or even 1% of the health budget allocated to mental health.

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