Mental health
- Gender disadvantage and reproductive health risk factors for common mental disorders in women
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This paper examines the associations between factors indicative of gender disadvantage and reproductive health with the risk of common mental disorders (CMDs) such as depression and anxiety amongst women in India. It finds that the risk for CMDs was significantly higher for women who had experienced gender disadvantage and economic difficulties.
Of the estimated 400 million persons affected by mental disorders, most live in developing countries which command only a fraction of global mental health resources. Mental disorders account for 5-10 per cent of the burden of disease in these countries. However, budgetary allocations in national health budgets rarely exceed 1 per cent. Vulnerable populations, such as the poor and those affected by disasters, are at greater risk.
Mental disorders can be effectively and affordably treated at local or community level. However, most of those in need do not receive any treatment. Mental health remains a low priority on the global public health agenda, in part due to the stigma associated with mental disorders.
Recommended reading
- Neurological disorders: public health challenges
- World Health Organization , 2007
- This report from the World Health Organization examines the public health aspects of neurological disorders. Neurological disorders, ranging from epilepsy to Alzheimer disease, from stroke to headache...
- Insights Health, issue 6: no health without mental health
- id21 Development Research Reporting Service, 2005
- Recommended reading
- Mental health services are under-resourced and neglected in many developing countries, according to a recent issue of the id21 Insights health bulletin. This is at a time when the demand for such serv...
- Achieving the millennium development goals: does mental health play a role?
- J. J. Miranda; V. Patel / Public Library of Science Medicine , 2005
- This paper from the journal PloS Medicine notes that mental health is absent from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, it cites evidence which indicates that mental health-related conditi...
Latest Additions
- Aceh Free Pasung: Releasing the mentally ill from physical restraint
- I. Puteh / International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 2011
- This article describes the Aceh Free Pasung programme, which is an important mental health and human rights initiative. It can serve to inform similar efforts in other parts of Indonesia and other low...
- An assessment of mental health policy in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia
- E. Faydi / Health Research Policy and Systems, 2011
- Approximately half of the countries in the African Region had a mental health policy by 2005, but little is known about quality of mental health policies in Africa and globally. This paper reports the...
