[21 Million People] Need Psychiatric Help In Russia

2023 Author: Abraham Higgins | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 23:16

[21 million people] need psychiatric help in Russia

In Russia, the number of people who suffer from mental disorders exceeds four million, and we are talking about officially registered cases. As the chief psychiatrist of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Zurab Kekelidze said at the opening of the Fifth National Congress on Social Psychiatry, 14% of the population needs the help of psychiatrists to varying degrees.

Zurab Kekelidze. Photo from the site takzdorovo.ru /

In Russia, the number of people who suffer from mental disorders exceeds four million, and we are talking about officially registered cases. As the chief psychiatrist of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Zurab Kekelidze said at the opening of the Fifth National Congress on Social Psychiatry, 14 percent of the population in our country needs help from psychiatrists to one degree or another, ITAR-TASS reports.

At the same time, according to Zurab Kekelidze, in the world, this statistics is no less indicative - 20-25 percent of the world's population needs the help of psychiatrists. According to the WHO, every second has a chance of getting sick, and depression by 2020 will become the second most common disease in the world after diseases of the cardiovascular system.

Speaking about the work of doctors in Russia, Kekelidze expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that district psychiatrists have to write out certificates and draw up other documents for a quarter of the time.

“It is believed that the healthy population suffers to please the mentally ill. Unfortunately, this leads to distortions. Please note that at present, a huge number of people apply to dispensaries due to the fact that when applying for work they require a certificate from a mental dispensary. According to the Moscow dispensaries, the issuance of these certificates takes up one fourth of the working time of the district doctor,”he said.

According to official data, 3.5% of the population (more than 4 million people) suffers from mental disorders in Russia. In turn, experts believe that about 21 million people in the country need the help of psychiatrists.

The Fifth National Congress on Social and Clinical Psychiatry "Mental Health - a Factor of Social Stability and Harmonious Development of Society" is being held in Moscow on December 11 and 12.