Share of mental disorders among adults India 2017 by classification

In 2017, every seventh Indian was affected by some form of mental disorder in varying degrees. Among all the classifications of mental disorders in India, idiopathic developmental intellectual disability followed by depressive disorders, and anxiety disorders reflected the highest shares. By contrast, schizophrenia and eating disorders represented the lowest shares. In a recent survey conducted in 2019, over 70 percent of the Indian youth agreed that, today’s youth suffered from more health and mental issues than ever before. Yet, paradoxically, in a 2018 survey by Ipsos relative to the frequency of visiting or consulting with a mental health professional, more than 50 percent of the respondents reported to have never visited one.

Disability adjusted life years

DALYs or disability adjusted life years is a metric used to quantify the overall disease burden which is the number of years that are lost as a result of ill-health, disability, or premature death. One DALY is equivalent to the loss of one year of health. In 2017, the highest share of total DALYs among adults in India were related to depressive disorders.

Interestingly, mental disorders with onset during adulthood reflected higher DALY rates in high and middle SDI states compared to the low SDI states. For instance, the state of Tamil Nadu which is categorized as a high SDI state reflected the highest DALY rate relative to depressive disorders.

Risk Factors

Some studies were able to quantify to an extent, a small fraction of risk factors, that are attributed to certain mental disorders. For example, lead exposure as a risk factor accounted for almost 63 percent of all idiopathic developmental disorders among adults in India in 2017.