(ANSA) – ROME, APRIL 01 – There are 728,338 people in Italy who in 2020 needed psychiatric care from specialist services, in practice 143.4 per 10 thousand adult inhabitants, with regional differences ranging from 34.2 to Molise up to 195.4 in Umbria. Among them, 232,376 people who in 2020 for the first time in their life asked for help from mental health services. This is what emerges from the latest Mental Health Report published by the Ministry of Health.
The users of psychiatric services are in 53.6% of cases women and in 69% of cases they are over the age of 45. In both sexes there are fewer patients under the age of 25 while the highest concentration is between 45 and 64 years.
The most frequent pathologies are depression (31.2 cases per 10,000 inhabitants), schizophrenia and other functional psychoses (29.9), neurotic and somatoform syndromes (18), mania and bipolar affective disorders (11.9) , personality and behavioral disorders (10,3). Among males, schizophrenic disorders, personality disorders, substance abuse disorders and mental retardation are more frequent, while women are predominantly affected by affective, neurotic and depressive disorders. In particular, for depression, the rate among women is almost double that of males: 40.4 per 10,000 inhabitants against 24.2.
Neurotic and somatoform syndromes predominate among the younger users of territorial services; the prevalence of users with schizophrenic psychosis is highest around the age of 50, while affective disorders progressively increase across the age groups up to 64 years. Depression is also a disease that becomes more frequent with increasing age, peaking at 55-64 years in both sexes. (HANDLE).
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