In a new study from the American Journal of Public Health, researchers found that a change in the level of positive mental health can be a predictor of future risk of mental illness, thereby supporting the need for greater attention to public health mental health promotion.
Researchers attempted to describe the prevalence of mental health and illness, the stability of both diagnoses over time and whether changes in mental health level predicted mental illness.
They did so by analyzing data from 1,723 participants of the 1995 and 2005 Midlife in the United States cross-sectional surveys. The participants were measured for positive mental health and 12-month mental disorders of major depressive episode, panic and generalized anxiety disorder.
The prevalence of mental illness was about the same in 1995 (18.5 percent) as it was in 2005 (17.5 percent). Only seven in 10 adults (72.4 percent) did not present symptoms of any mental disorder in 1995 and 2005. Of the 17.5 percent of respondents with any mental illness in 2005, slightly more than half were new cases.
The study’s authors state, “Our findings suggest the need for investing in mental health promotion and protection to complement the de facto approach of treatment and risk reduction for improving national mental health.”
Source: American Journal of Public Health