Mental illness said to affect one-quarter of Americans

Mental illness said to affect one-quarter of Americans
By Leila Abboud, The Wall Street Journal

More Americans are seeking treatment for mental illnesses than ever before, but most of them fail to get adequate care, according to a major new government study.

In the once-a-decade report funded by the National Institutes of Health, researchers found that one-quarter of Americans had a psychiatric disorder in the year prior to the survey, down slightly from 28 percent in the report a decade ago. But 40 percent of affected people sought treatment, up from just 25 percent who sought treatment in the previous report. The study, which is intended to provide a national snapshot of the most commonly occurring mental illnesses, covered conditions ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit disorder to depression and bipolar disorder. (Rarer conditions such as schizophrenia, which is believed to affect just 1 percent of the population, weren't included.)