According to the British charity Mind, one in four people in the world suffer from a mental disorder. Those figures are much higher than you might expect, considering that the number of young people attempting suicide has risen over the last few decades. And this increase is not simply due to a self-reporting bias, either. There are many factors contributing to this rise in suicide rates, including social stigma and the high cost of seeking treatment.
One reason is the lack of understanding of the brain. For example, the lack of observing brain activity during the development of the pharmaceutical drugs has made the practice of psychiatry difficult to study. In the past, treatment of mental illnesses has been viewed as a mystery. However, this has been changing, with the help of recent developments in brain physiology. Soon, psychiatry will be included alongside traditional health care, bringing the field closer to the rest of the medical field.
While psychiatric drugs may seem like an obvious answer to the question of why mental health is so bad, the reality is that they come with many side effects. As with all drugs, there are side effects. Antibiotics, for example, have revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections, but they also affect the beneficial bacteria in the human body. Other side effects of psychiatric drugs are nausea and diarrhea, and many more.
