'Focus more on mental health' | Northern Rivers Health | Fitness and ...

People with mental illnesses have a life expectancy of just 56 years.

AAP

SCIENTISTS and governments need to put as much effort into treating mental illnesses as they do cancer and heart disease, an international mental health expert says.

Dr Thomas Insel, who is visiting Australia for a series of lectures, says mental disorders were often not recognised as major sources of disability and mortality compared to diseases like cancer.

"Most people would not believe that more people kill themselves than are killed by others," Dr Insel told AAP.

"And that mostly has to do with serious mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, to some extent PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), schizophrenia and a few others.

"We need to really bump up the science in lots of ways and put the kind of energy into the science of mental illness that we put into the science of cancer and heart disease."

Dr Insel, who is director of the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States, said mental disorders were the leading source of medical disability in developed countries like Australia.

People with mental illnesses also had a life expectancy of just 56 years.

He said major steps had been made in understanding the causes of mental illnesses thanks to developments in genetics and neuroscience.

As a result, scientists had shone new light on different ways of diagnosing mental disorders and developing better treatments.

Dr Insel said he believed important genetic discoveries like "biomarkers" for diseases such as schizophrenia would help remove some of the stigmas still attached to mental illness.

And he praised Australian researchers for their groundbreaking work in mental illness.

"I do get the sense in Australia there's a growing recognition of the importance of this area and there are now investments that are really enlightened and much more than we are seeing in other areas, particularly in the US where there has been less interest in trying to invest in research into mental illness relative to cancer or infectious disease," he said.

Dr Insel was invited to Australia to deliver lectures to the Mental Health Research Institute at the Melbourne Brain Centre and the University of Sydney.

Source: http://www.byronnews.com.au/story/2011/10/09/focus-more-on-mental-health-us-expert/

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