Burden of Mental Disorders: A Study of the Middle East Countries for the Period 2000- 2017

Mental disorders, as the most important global health challenge these days, have created many concerns for health systems, health professionals and policy makers and are a major contributor to the growth of health complications and disabilities worldwide. The present study was designed and conducted to describe the status of the illness burden of mental disorders in the Middle Eastern countries during the period 2000 to 2017.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted based on the latest published and available data (up to 2017) by Global Burden Disease (GBD) database for mental disorders in 2018. The population of the study was Middle Eastern countries. In the present study, mental disorders including: schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, autism, ADHD, behavioral disorder and mental disability disorder were evaluated. Disability-Adjusted Life Years Index (DALY) was used as a measure of total disease burden. The information contained in the GBD database is based on data obtained by the countries concerned and due to economic constraints and health development, some countries have performed poorly in research evidence-based data recording.

Mental disorders accounted for 4.9% from DALY recorded for burden of diseases in the world, ranking sixth in the world; for the Middle East region, 6.2% (rank seventh). Depression disorder (35%) and anxiety disorder (25%) had the highest burden disease of mental disorders. According to data from the GBD database, mental disorders in Iran, Bahrain and Qatar have the highest rank and in Egypt, Iraq and Yemen had the least burden of disease. Also, the burden disease of depression and anxiety disorder, was significantly higher among women than men in all countries. The age group of 15-49 years had the highest DALY level of mental disorders.

The results of the present study show that mental disorders in the Middle East region have high burden disease compared to the global level. Also, in the Middle Eastern countries, women were more at risk of mental disorders than men because of cultural barriers and other restrictions. It is suggested that policymakers in the studied countries, including Iran, prioritize action on mental health in their policy priorities to control and reduce the prevalence of mental disorders.