Right-to-health responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies.

Unlike the health of our bodies, the health of our minds is often neglected. In 2007, The Lancet’s Series on Global Mental Health sought to draw attention to the worldwide burden of mental illness. Data published by Michael Phillips and colleagues in this issue indicate that mental health disorders might aff ect far more people than previously estimated. Their study took on the challeng ing task of screening more than 60 000 people for any mental disorder in four Chinese provinces and found a preva lence of 17%, corresponding to 173 million people in China as a whole. The data contrast sharply with the fi ndings of the global burden of disease reports—widely acclaimed as the standard against which mental health policy should be formed—by recording substan tially higher prevalences for mental illnesses such as schizo phrenia (69% vs 30%) and bipolar disorders (19% vs 5%). Accurate data specifi c to country and culture are essential to target eff ectively the scale-up of mental health services worldwide. Similar fi gures were released by the US National Research Council and Institute of Medicine earlier this week. In the USA, about one in fi ve parents with children under 18 years of age (7·5 million adults) are aff ected by depression in a given year, and more than 15 million children live with an adult who has had clinical depression in the past year. Despite the prevalence of mental health disorders, very few people seek professional help—only 8% of aff ected individuals did so in China. Consequently, identifi cation, treatment, and prevention of mental health can no longer be the sole responsibility of medical-care providers. One solution could be to treat mental health disorders as a social issue that requires recognition and support from family, friends, and the community. Education at school, in the workplace, and through the media should highlight the range of treatment services available and how to access them. In turn, medical-care providers might adopt a more family-focused model of care, as recommended by the report on depression in parents. The latest fi ndings from China should give us pause to reconsider our attitudes and responses to mental ill health. ■ The Lancet