Anxiety disorders in India rose significantly by 123 per cent between 1990 and 2023.

*The prevalence of dysthymia, a chronic low-grade depression, per lakh population was 902 in 1990, rising to 948 in 2023.

*The prevalence rate of 316 cases of schizophrenia per lakh population climbed to 321 per lakh in 2023.

* The prevalence of major depressive disorders increased from 2,147 per lakh in 1990 to 2,799.6 per lakh.

It’s called a “silent health emergency”, and India is in the throes of it.

The data tells us a worrying story: the mental health crisis is spiralling.

A new analysis from the “Global Burden of Disease Study”, published in The Lancet, has found that mental disorders have surged dramatically across the globe over the past three decades, with India witnessing some of the sharpest increases.

According to the study, nearly 1.2 billion people worldwide are living with mental health conditions, which is nearly double the number compared to 1990.

While population growth and ageing partly explain the rise, researchers say the increase is also linked to the lingering impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, growing social inequality, conflict, economic stress, digital isolation, and changing attitudes toward mental health reporting.

Particularly alarming is the sharp rise among adolescents aged 15 and 19 years, signalling a long-term structural shift in global mental wellbeing that countries like India may be ill-equipped to handle.

The Covid-19 pandemic was one contributing factor, particularly for anxiety and depressive disorders.

File photo/Reuters Speaking to Firstpost, the lead author of the study, Dr Damian Santomauro, an associate professor at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research, Australia, said the prevalence and burden of mental disorders will increase over time.

Dr Santomauro said South Asia saw one of the biggest increases in the mental health burden in the world, with the highest increase in DALY (Disability-Adjusted Life-Year) counts and age-standardised DALY rates for mental disorders between 1990 and 2023.

[DALY is a health metric used to measure the overall burden of disease.

One DALY represents the loss of exactly one year of full, healthy life.] Among women and girls, the impact was especially severe: the mental health burden rose by 44.2 per cent even after adjusting for population growth and ageing.

The excerpts from the interview: Q.

Around 1.2 billion people live with mental health conditions.

Your study shows a sharp rise in mental disorders globally since 1990.

What are its key findings? Dr Santomauro: We observed a 95·5 per cent increase in prevalent cases of mental disorders globally between 1990 and 2023.

A large proportion of this increase was driven by population growth and ageing.

As countries have become more successful at reducing mortality from various communicable, maternal, nutritional, and neonatal diseases, more people are living to ages when chronic and disabling conditions, including mental disorders, are more common.

Additionally, we observed a 24.2 per cent increase in the global age-standardised prevalence rate of mental disorders between 1990 and 2023, indicating that the rise cannot be explained by population growth and ageing alone.

What do you believe are the biggest drivers behind this increase? How much of the rise reflects a true increase in mental illness, and how much is due to better diagnosis, awareness, and reporting? Dr Santomauro: Our study did not directly assess the drivers of this increase, so we cannot provide a definitive explanation.

The Covid-19....