Tamar Kahn
11 October 2007
Cape Town — Fewer than one in five South Africans who experience a mental health disorder during their lifetime get treatment, says a major new study funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).
The South African Stress and Health Survey, released yesterday to coincide with World Mental Health Day, is the first of its kind, and will be an important source of information for policy makers.
"The results indicate that health service usage is disturbingly low," said Prof Soraya Seedat, from the MRC's Anxiety Disorders Unit.
The survey also highlighted the fact that mental illnesses constitute a significant portion of SA's disease burden, but remain largely hidden, said researchers. This is in line with the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) estimate that 14% of the global burden of disease is due to neuropsychiatric disorders, largely due to the chronically disabling effects of depression, alcohol and drug abuse, and psychoses.
"The costs associated with not treating mental health (disorders) are enormous," said the Anxiety Disorder Unit's director, Prof Dan Stein.
The researchers interviewed 4351 adults across SA for the survey, which forms part of a global mental health study co- ordinated by the World Health Organisation.
Thirty percent of the participants said they had experienced a mental disorder during their lifetime, while 19% said they had battled mental illness in the past year.
There were insignificant racial variations in the prevalence of different kinds of mental health disorder, but marked provincial differences.
Western Cape had the highest prevalence of mental illness, and the biggest drug and alcohol abuse problem -- 18,5% of people from Western Cape had experienced a substance-use problem during their lifetime, compared to the national average of 11,7%.
Krish Vallabhjee , the provincial health department's chief director for hospitals, attributed this difference in part to the recent surge in tik (methamphetamine) abuse in Western Cape, which he said had led to a sharp increase in admissions to psychiatric facilities.
Undiagnosed and untreated mental disorders also increased the risk of drug and alcohol abuse, said Stein.
Compared to 14 other countries in the WHO's World Mental Health Survey, SA ranked second when it came to prevalence for substance-use disorders, sixth for anxiety disorders and seventh for mood disorders.
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