One in five Americans mentally ill in past year: study

One in five adults in the United States, or nearly 50 million people, suffered mental illnesses in the past year with women and young adults suffering disproportionately, a government report released on Thursday found.

The survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found women were more likely than men (23 percent to 16.8 percent) to have experienced a mental illness, while the rate of mental illness among people aged 18 to 25 was twice that of those aged 50 and older.

The administration defined mental illness among adults as diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorders, excluding developmental disorders and substance use.

The survey found that 5 percent of American adults, or 11.4 million people, had suffered a serious mental illness in the past year that substantially interfered with their lives.

The report found that about 8.7 million American adults had serious thoughts of suicide in the past year, with 2.5 million making suicide plans and 1.1 million attempting to take their own lives.

Americans suffering mental illnesses were three times as likely to have developed substance dependence or substance abuse disorders than adults who had not experienced mental illness.

Among youths aged 12 to 17, 8 percent - or 1.9 million teenagers - experienced a major depressive episode in the past year, defined as a period of at least 2 weeks when a person experienced a depressed mood or loss of interest.

A new study (August 16, 2005) by Harvard University and the National Institute of Mental Health (search) claims that 46 percent of all Americans will, at some point in their lives, develop a mental disorder.

But this new statistic has experts arguing over exactly what constitutes a true mental illness.

According to experts, severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, dementia and manic depression are relatively uncommon. But the updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (search), or DSM - the standard survey for mental illness - lists conditions like adjustment disorder, passive-aggressive disorder and female sexual arousal disorder as mental illness, reflecting what are claimed to be advances in the mental health profession.

Critics say that's crazy, and that it won't be long before all human quirks and flaws are classified as mental disorders.

"When you say we're going to provide mental health treatment to everyone, then the severely mentally ill usually get the lowest priority," said Dr. Richard Lamb (search), professor of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California.

Others say the DSM should be considered the mental health bible, because if it says that a person is mentally ill, then that person can get the treatment they need - and insurance companies will foot the bill.