Prevention

3.1 Introduction

We are witnessing a deterioration in global emotional wellbeing, leading to dramatic increases in mental health disorders. Depression and anxiety disorders now affect nearly 1 in 5 adults worldwide, with prevalence rates increasing by over 25% during the COVID-19 pandemic (O’Conner et al., 2014). The situation is particularly concerning amongst adolescents and, in some western countries, amongst middle-aged men. Suicide has become the second leading cause of death for Americans aged 10-24, with rates doubling since 2000 (Stein et al., .2018). Emergency departments report youth mental health visits have quintupled in the past decade, with suicide-related visits increasing most sharply (Shonkoff and Garner., 2012).

This crisis stems from multiple interconnected factors:

Economic Dislocation: The concept of “deaths of despair”—introduced by economists Angus Deaton and Anne Case (Murry et al., 2015)—describes the alarming rise in mortality among middle-aged Americans without college degrees, primarily due to drug overdoses, alcohol-related diseases, and suicide. Their research suggests these deaths reflect a profound existential crisis stemming from loss of stable jobs, wage stagnation and the opioid epidemic.

Social Fragmentation: The majority of societies have witnessed declining religious participation (from 70% regular attendance in 1970 to 47% today) (Weare., 2011), with fewer community organizations (PTA, unions, clubs) and greater solitary living (28% of households are now single-person) (Fazel et al., 2014).

Digital Displacement: There is emerging evidence that Gen Z’s mental health decline correlates with smartphone adoption since 2012 (Patton et al., 2016), with social media replacing in-person interaction, confounded by sleep deprivation from our 24/7 connectivity.

The Impact of Mental Health Disorders on Healthspan and Lifespan

Mental health conditions are on par with cardiovascular and circulatory diseases when measured by death and disability (DALYs) (Vigo et al., 2016) but the morbidity from mental health conditions is considerably higher than that of the four major NCDs: cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and kidney diseases, and cancers, combined, thus causing a greater number of years of poor health (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2021).

While other noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, account for more deaths, mental health conditions account for more years lived with disability.

Years lived with disability (YLDs) for mental health conditions’ vs 4 other major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), millions of YLDs as of 2025

Figure. The Morbidity Burden from Mental Health Disorders Source: Herbig et al., 2025.

Mental health disorders are more likely to ‘cluster’ alongside some other chronic conditions, and are responsible for substantial deterioration in both the health and economic impact from the primary chronic condition itself (Hajat et al., 2021)

Furthermore, those with mental health conditions can face reduced life expectancy (Charlston et al., 2015). For example, people with depression are up to four times more likely to experience and die from cardiac-related problems than those without depression (Shah et al 2011).

Mental health disorders warrant particular attention through further recognition, prevention and screening practices, and disease management, due to the increased health and cost burden when they occur with other chronic conditions (Hajat et al., 2021) By 2050, scaling cost-effective, evidence-based mental health interventions could reduce the mental health disease burden by over 40% or 150 million DALYs, and add 1.1 years to healthy life expectancy (Herbig et al., 2023).

SCALING MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTIONS COULD AVERT 150 MILLION DISABILITY-ADJUSTED LIFE YEARS BY 2050.

Figure. Cost Burden From Mental Health Disorders Source: Herbig et al., 2025.