NYTimes had a podcast today about how the autism category—which used to mean something closer to nonverbal or mentally disabled—had broadened and includes a lot more people now but with symptoms that aren’t at the same severity.
I feel like that’s true for a lot of these categories. I feel like severity of illness is really important when talking about mental disorders since the spectrum is so wide.
If you're curious what type of disease/disorder they're talking about:
> The 36 medical conditions included in the systematic analysis cover the lifespan, from birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to migraine, which can begin in teen years and often peak in a person's 30s, to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which can occur later in life.
> Researchers found the most prevalent conditions were tension-type headache affecting 122 million Americans, migraine affecting 58 million and diabetic neuropathy affecting 17 million.
>After adjusting for changes in the age composition of the U.S. population, researchers found that the prevalence rate of neurological diseases and disorders has remained stable over time, with only a 0.2% decrease between 1990 and 2021.
>Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.
Sounds about right, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people on Earth are on either 1. some kind of prescription drug meant to address some mental ailment or 2. Drinking alcohol/smoking/doing drugs (sometimes all 3) to address some mental ailment. There is a vanishingly small percentage of humans that do neither. Just a gut feeling, I cite nothing and have no wish to.
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[ 5.4 ms ] story [ 40.5 ms ] threadI feel like that’s true for a lot of these categories. I feel like severity of illness is really important when talking about mental disorders since the spectrum is so wide.
> The 36 medical conditions included in the systematic analysis cover the lifespan, from birth defects and neurodevelopmental disorders like attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder to migraine, which can begin in teen years and often peak in a person's 30s, to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, which can occur later in life.
> Researchers found the most prevalent conditions were tension-type headache affecting 122 million Americans, migraine affecting 58 million and diabetic neuropathy affecting 17 million.
>Over the same period, deaths from neurological diseases and disorders declined by 15%, meaning more people are living longer with these conditions. As a result, the number of years lived with disability increased by 10%.