Mental Illness affects one-fifth of people living in war zones

LONDON (Reuters) – One in five people in war zones suffer from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday . Many people had severe forms of these mental illnesses.

The findings underline the long-term impact of war-related crises in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen, said the report. United Nations health agency, and the numbers are significantly higher than in peacetime population, where about one in 14 people have mental illness.

"Given the large number of people in need and the humanitarian imperative of reducing suffering, there is an urgent need to implement scalable mental health interventions to cope with this burden," said the minister. ;Research Team.

Mark van Ommeren, a WHO mental health specialist who worked for the team, said the results "add even more weight to the argument for immediate and sustained investment, so the psychological and psychosocial support be made available to all those in need who are living. conflict and its consequences ".

In 2016, the number of ongoing armed conflicts reached a record 53 in 37 countries and 12% of the world's population lives in an active war zone, according to United Nations figures. Since the Second World War, nearly 69 million people around the world have been forced to flee war and violence.

The WHO Conflict Mental Health Study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, was conducted by a team of researchers from the WHO, University of Queensland, in Australia, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and Harvard, United States. .

He badyzed research from 129 studies and data from 39 countries published between 1980 and August 2017.

Regions that have experienced conflict over the last 10 years have been included and mental illnesses have been clbadified into three categories: mild, moderate and severe. Natural disasters and public health emergencies, such as Ebola, have not been included.

In all war zones, the average prevalence was highest for mild mental health problems, at 13%. About 4% of those living in armed conflict had moderate mental illness and in severe cases the prevalence was 5%.

The study also found that rates of depression and anxiety in conflict appeared to increase with age and that depression was more common in women than in men.

The study was funded by WHO, the Queensland Department of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.