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Ever thought of the idea that 30% of all disability from all medical causes can be traced back to mental disorders or neuropsychiatric syndromes? Thomas Insel talks about a fact that was viewed as ‘just’ a theory for many many years. Mental disorders can lead to a higher mortality rate than heart diseases or cancer. That is not because mental disorders are diseases, but because they are disabilities. What causes a high morbidity rate and also high mortality rate is the fact that these start very early in life. Over 50% will have onset by the age of 14.
Ever thought of the idea that 30% of all disability from all medical causes can be traced back to mental disorders or neuropsychiatric syndromes? Thomas Insel talks about a fact that was viewed as ‘just’ a theory for many many years. Mental disorders can lead to a higher mortality rate than heart diseases or cancer. That is not because mental disorders are diseases, but because they are disabilities. What causes a high morbidity rate and also high mortality rate is the fact that these start very early in life. Over 50% will have onset by the age of 14.
Thomas Insel is working on making a progress on these illnesses by studying them and finding a way to fight them. The brain is a complex organ, which we have just begun to understand. In fact, the brain does not even understand itself. With people who have sicknesses like schizophrenia, depression or bipolar disorder, experts still can’t explain how these influence or change brain functions.
For brain disorders, behavior is the last thing to change. Why is that important to know? Well, with diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s for example, the changes of the brain appear decades before the first behavioral changes come to surface. With early detection doctors might be able to cure mental disorders rather than just treating them. This would be a fundamental breakthrough, however, technology is not yet advanced enough.
