14. India
Global burden of disease: 11.6%
WHO’s report states that 7.5% Indians suffer from mental illnesses and 4.5% suffer from depression (which is around 56 million). Another battle in India, when it comes to mental illness, is the fact that people with mental illness are more likely to turn to priests and religious persons for treatment rather than actual medical doctors. Research shows that treatment gap for all mental disorder is 60% and nearly 80% of people will mental illness did not receive any medical treatment mostly because of societal stigmatization of mental illness. Stigmatization affects all age groups, regardless of their economic situation. In case of minors who experience symptoms of mental illness, treatment is often unavailable because they need the approval of family members which is hard to acquire because association with mental illness can bring “disgrace” to the family.
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