Morbidity of mental health disorders in the community could be one of the major public health challenges that the State will have to tackle immediately, with nine per cent of the adult population in Kerala suffering from common mental disorders (CMD).
A community-based epidemiological survey on the state of mental health of the population, conducted among five districts in the State, has pointed at the high levels of non-psychotic psychiatric morbidity in Kerala. Depression was reported to be the commonest of the CMDs in the community and given the high suicide rates in Kerala, this is a problem that the health system will have to address immediately, Secretary of the State Mental Health Authority, which conducted the study, D. Raju told The Hindu . When the prevalence of all priority mental health conditions were considered together, 12.43 per cent of the adult population seemed to be affected.
The study report was released by Health Minister K.K. Shylaja, here on Saturday. The study reported that 3.76 per cent of males above 18 years in the State were consuming alcohol at dangerous levels and for prolonged period and that these were the “problem drinkers” who really needed interventions such as de-addiction programmes.
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The lifetime prevalence of psychosis in the adult population in the State is 0.77 per cent. Schizophrenia prevalence was 0. 29 per cent and Bipolar Disorder was 0.37 per cent in adult population. These rates are comparable to the rates reported by ICMR collaborative study on severe mental morbidity. However, the study has certain limitations as far as identification of individuals with psychosis is concerned as the survey has been carried out by health workers. Hence the current rate of psychosis is likely to be a lower estimate, the report says. The study found the prevalence of Epilepsy and Mental retardation to be low at 0.23 per cent and 0.21 per cent. However, these cases were not clinically evaluated to confirm the diagnosis and hence the estimates should be considered as crude. The estimated prevalence of Dementia and Cognitive Impairment among people aged 60 years and above was 10.48 per cent in the study.