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What About Mental Health Expectancy?
From Zack Lynch at BRAIN WAVES: neurons, bits & genes.
Living physically longer does not mean living in better mental health. Mental health expectancy is the number of years that an individual can successfully perform mental functions, resulting in productive activities, fulfilling relationships, and the ability to cope with adversity.
He continues by point out that five of the ten leading causes of disability worldwide (major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, alcohol use and obsessive compulsive disorders) are mental problems. They are as relevant in developing countries as they are in rich ones, and all predictions are that there will be a dramatic increase in mental problems in the coming years. Developing tools to help solve these problems will be a major focus of neurotechnology.
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The Surgeon General's Mental Health Report offers a great background into the extent of psychiatric disorders and states that mental illness emerged from the Global Burden of Disease study as a surprisingly significant contributor to the burden of disease. The measure of calculating disease burden in this study, called Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), allows comparison of the burden. Last decade, mental illness made to second place, just behind cardiovascular diseases.
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