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Cited by 2,494Mental Health Treatment and AccessHealth Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of LifeGlobal Health and Epidemiology

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Estimating the true global burden of mental illness

Open access
Vigo, Daniel, Thornicroft, Graham, Atun, Rifat·2016·The Lancet Psychiatry
DOI 10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00505-2
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Abstract

We argue that the global burden of mental illness is underestimated and examine the reasons for under-estimation to identify five main causes: overlap between psychiatric and neurological disorders; the grouping of suicide and self-harm as a separate category; conflation of all chronic pain syndromes with musculoskeletal disorders; exclusion of personality disorders from disease burden calculations; and inadequate consideration of the contribution of severe mental illness to mortality from associated causes. Using published data, we estimate the disease burden for mental illness to show that the global burden of mental illness accounts for 32·4% of years lived with disability (YLDs) and 13·0% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), instead of the earlier estimates suggesting 21·2% of YLDs and 7·1% of DALYs. Currently used approaches underestimate the burden of mental illness by more than a third. Our estimates place mental illness a distant first in global burden of disease in terms of YLDs, and level with cardiovascular and circulatory diseases in terms of DALYs. The unacceptable apathy of governments and funders of global health must be overcome to mitigate the human, social, and economic costs of mental illness.

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Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 18

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Metadata

Authors
Vigo, D., Thornicroft, G., & Atun, R.
Affiliations
  • Harvard University (US)
  • King's College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Atun, Rifat
ORCID
Venue
The Lancet Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2016-02
Volume
3
Issue
2
Pages
171-178
ISSN
2215-0366 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00505-2
OpenAlex
W2266871031
Semantic Scholar
e49a6925b71d8b4a1d1af32fbe9ac89eaacb1cfb
Cited by
2,494
References
13
Citations by year
2026: 205 · 2025: 261 · 2024: 267 · 2023: 346 · 2022: 311 · 2021: 329 · 2020: 291 · 2019: 234 · 2018: 153 · 2017: 71 · 2016: 23
FWCI
24.94
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • The Lancet Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • Harvard University
  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • National Institute for Health and Care Research (FP7/2007–2013, NF-SI-0611-10053)
  • King's College London
  • European Commission (2007–2013, FP7 2007-2013, FP7/2007)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Mental Health Treatment and Access
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Global Health and Epidemiology
Keywords
disability-adjusted life years, years lived with disability, suicide and self-harm, chronic pain syndromes, musculoskeletal disorders, personality disorders, global health financing
MeSH terms
Mental Disorders, Humans, Global Health

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