America's mental health: goals and programs of the National Institute of Mental Health.
During any given year in the 80s, an estimated 15 percent of the U.S. population--some 33 million people and more, as the population grows--will suffer a diagnosable mental disorder. An estimated two million Americans have been or will be diagnosed schizophrenic, ten to 14 million will suffer from depressive disorders, and more than one million will have organic psychoses of toxic or neurologic origin or permanently disabling mental conditions of various causes. Severe anxiety disorders, phobias, alcoholism, and drug dependence can be as debilitating as the psychoses mentioned above and require as much skilled care. Recent estimates place the direct clinical costs for mental health services annually at approximately $17 billion, about 12 percent of total national health care costs. This figure does not reflect indirect costs stemming from loss of productivity, chronic disability, and death. Nor does it fully reflect the findings of recent studies that mentally ill individuals experience higher than normal rates of physical illness and use general medical services at about double the rate of the mentally well.
D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D008603:Mental Health; D009315:National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.) / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States; D014482:United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration / Q000458:organization & administration*