Nearly 40% of Europeans suffer from some form of brain disorder. The boundary zone between mental pathology and health is quite large — it includes panic attacks, phobias, depression … We met with experts to discuss these data and get an expert analysis.
Thousands of Europeans from 27 EU countries took part in a unique study of disorders in the brain and nervous system. Sociologists were interested in a wide range of problems: from headaches to panic attacks. It turned out that 38,2% of the population of Europe suffer from some kind of brain disorder*. On the eve of World Mental Health Day, which is celebrated every year on October 10, we met with clinical psychologist Alla Kholmogorova and psychiatrist Elena Vrono to discuss these data and hear an expert forecast.
Psychologies: The figure of 38% is impressive. What trends have you noticed in recent years?
Elena Vrono: The boundary «gray zone» between mental health and illness is quite large, and it contains disorders that greatly reduce the quality of life. Many women and men suffer from anxiety disorders, panic attacks, social phobias, and depression.
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Alla Kholmogorova: And more and more of those who go to the doctor with a variety of pains that are not actually associated with damage to organs, but are of a psychosomatic nature. This is how the body reacts to emotional experiences, negative emotions, or unconscious internal conflict. In Russia, such patients make up 30% of those who come to polyclinics. They have become more active in identifying and treating them, including using psychotherapeutic methods.
Are there disorders that are more common in women or men?
A. H.: Suicidal attempts are more often made by women, and men die as a result of them. Men’s depression has its own specifics: men are less likely than women to complain about their mood, loss of strength, often suffering is masked by alcohol.
EV: There is, for example, a disorder — dipsomania: these are binges associated with depression. We have to admit that there are few such effective «antidepressants» as alcohol and cocaine. And there is a direct relationship between the consumption of strong alcohol and the mortality of the population (including the number of suicides).
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So depression is the number one problem?
EV: No, it’s not. I am approached today by 30-year-old successful professionals who are not even able to have lunch with colleagues: take a fork with them, bring food to their mouths. This is how social anxiety manifests itself. Life in the metropolis, with its pace and disunity, contributes to increased social anxiety.
A. H.: In studying such “social” anxiety, social psychologist Philip Zimbardo found that, for example, many students are hesitant to seek the help of other people, even when they desperately need it. They are afraid of negative evaluation from their side. MSUPE studies show that 15–25% of schoolchildren suffer from social phobia. This is dangerous, among other things, because such children feel their loneliness more than others, more often they become victims of school violence.
Today we hear more and more about panic attacks. Is there a way to deal with them?
EV: The most effective way to treat this borderline disorder is a carefully chosen drug regimen plus the cooperation of a psychologist with a psychiatrist. The most difficult thing is to explain the importance of such an integrated approach: many are afraid of pills and do not trust psychologists.
Yes, because we still have a very strong fear of punitive psychiatry, coercion, violence in psychiatric hospitals, where you get healthy and leave sick …
A. H.: Removing the fear of seeking help from a psychiatrist is an important task. In addition to psycho-neurological dispensaries, in Russia there are neurosis rooms at district clinics, where people with anxiety and depressive disorders turn much more readily. Today, the main trends in the development of mental health services throughout the world are the expansion of outpatient care for people with mental disorders and its connection with the general medical network.
EV: But there are conditions, such as acute psychosis, that still require inpatient treatment. This is also important for the preservation of the family: a person with psychosis is unbearable, and often dangerous for relatives, so it is they who should be interested in placing such a patient in a hospital.
What advice would you give to those who are constantly being disturbed by constant anxiety?
A. H.: Anxiety is a basic human emotion, and it is unlikely that you will be able to live without worrying. How can we not react to what is happening in our families, at work, in the state? The main buffer that can protect our soul in everyday stress is our relatives and friends, their support, that is, the real social network of each person. But when it comes to anxiety or depressive disorder, professional help is needed, and then you need to look for a specialist with good training. Alas, there are many people with low qualifications in the psychotherapeutic services market**.
EV: And it is worth reading more — after all, everything that happens to our soul has been described many times, especially in Russian literature.
* For more information about this study, see European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2011, vol. 21.
** «How to recognize a bad psychotherapist»