Two in five Europeans has a psychological condition

The results of an extraordinary survey of thirty year’s worth of mental health data carried out over 27 countries has revealed that nearly two in five Europeans has a mental or other disorder of the brain.

No doubt eyebrows will be raised and articles penned about the ‘medicalisation of normality’ – and in fact a prime example can be read in this week’s Guardian.

‘Big Pharma feeding its appetite for profits and ours for drugs, has gained an ever greater hold over our mental and emotional lives, medicalising normality.’

The argument runs that the medical establishment is continuously inventing disorders to justify its existence.

There might be some truth to that. Glaxo Smith Kline, makers of Seroxat, Paxil and other antidepressants, continues to peddle the false information that depression is caused by an ‘imbalance in brain chemicals’ which miraculously can be ‘cured’ by taking their drugs.

In fact antidepressants were discovered by accident and no one really knows how they – or depression – work.

On the other hand it is also patently absurd to state that ‘doctors could recommend group running for depression, proved to have far better effects than [antidepressants].’ Really? You’d need to do a lot of running.

Looking at the list of ‘disorders’ in the EU report, they all seem quite familiar to me – alcoholism, insomnia, anxiety, OCD, dementia and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’m sure most of us know someone, maybe even ourselves, with one of these.

Take insomnia for example. This was found to be the second most common disorder in the EU, suffered by 7% of the EU population, or 29.1 million people.

So what is insomnia? Sure, people have difficulty sleeping – that doesn’t mean there’s something ‘wrong’ with them, does it?

Well, look at this study commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation. Insomnia is defined as ‘sleep disturbance for at least three nights a week to the extent that it causes a degree of day-time distress.’

The Mental Health Foundation thinks it is a ‘major public health concern’ causing 55% of insomniacs relationship difficulties (compared to 13% for non-insomniacs), 83% low mood (with the inherent risk of depression) and 94% low energy, 78% poor concentration and 68% decreased ability to get things done (with all the implications for work).

While they might not use the rather clinical term ‘disorder’ I think most insomniacs would admit that, in a very negative way, their sleep is not ‘normal.’

The same is true for depression. Sure low moods are part of life – you can’t be ‘up’ all the time. But being ‘down’ all the time, for weeks on end with no relief, is that ‘normal?’

The lead author of this ‘major milestone’ of a report predicted the negative response his findings would get:

'Lay persons, the public, and even many clinicians and researchers might be surprised and sceptical both about our 38% estimate and the large number of disorders included. This might be due to limited knowledge, negative attitudes, and potentially to misconceptions about the nature of mental disorders.’

Why can’t our brains go wrong?  I mean they are by far the most complex things we own.
The report describes mental health as the most important health issue of the 21st century, with depression by far and away the leading cause of disability and early death.

In order to tackle it public information is incredibly important. But people are not going to respond to language like ‘disorder.’ Everyone wants to be part of the ‘normal’ club, even when membership is falling.

A recent report from the Centre for Disease Control in the US has predicted that nearly one in two Americans will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime, while

‘Nearly 8.4 million Americans had suicidal thoughts in the past year and 2.2 million made plans to kill themselves. One million persons attempted suicide.’

This is not a case of ‘medicalising normality.’ By saying it is we are encouraging people to make a dangerous choice between being normal and getting well.