Mental health - a problem of the 21st century

Abstract

The increasing prevalence ofmental health disorders is likely to be a major problem in the 21st century not only because it is one of the consequences of population ageing and improvements in overall mortality conditions, but also because it is tied to changes in life styles and tempos of living. The need to map out the actual situation appears to be a priority task in this area. Results ofthe C1Dl questionnaire survey, based on the application of an expert-system approach to diagnosing mental diseases, confirm that neurotic anxiety disorders are the most common psychopathology in the Czech population and that their incidence is significantly higher among women. Regional differences in hidden morbidity due to mental diseases imply a similar structure of linkages as in the case of mortality, especially from the point of view of differences by sex and other determining factors.