In 2001, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that “1 in 4 people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives.” 20 years later, approximately 450 million people are suffering from these conditions. As the WHO explains, mental illnesses are “among the leading causes of ill health and disability worldwide”.
Among the most common mental disorders are depression and anxiety. In 2017, it was estimated that depression has affected more than 264 million people worldwide. However, recent studies have advised that depression cases had increased three times during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) cases are estimated as 6.8 million, which is equivalent to three in every one-hundred people (The World Health Report, 2021). But besides of the prevalence of those two common disorders, there are other alarming signs that advises that mental health should be in the top list of concerning in the matter of overall health and wellness. The nation’s leading community-based nonprofit Mental Health America (2021) states that mental disorders among youth is increasing 9.7% in the U.S. compared to the 9.2% of 2019. Even before the pandemic effects, the numbers of people experiencing mental health disorders was increasing considerably. Still, the most alarming statistic so far is that suicidal ideation has increased 0.15%, according to last’s year dataset while approximately 800,000 people die by suicide every year, which is equivalent to one person dying every forty seconds (WHO, 2021).
However, during the last few years mental health has slowly moved out of the shadows to become a significant issue to assess, and mental health is gradually increasing attention and research (WHO, 2021). Professionals in the fields of Neuroscience, Psychology and Medicine are performing numerous studies to understand the neural mechanisms that affect behavior, cognition and psychopathology. That is the case of the 2018 research study “Functional Brain Networks Are Dominated by Stable Group and Individual Factors, Not Cognitive or Daily Variation”, in which Gratton et al. analyzed data obtained from fMRI (functional magnetic resonance) from nine sampled individuals in order to explain the neural network variability across different tasks. Researchers found that brain networks are stable based on certain individual features, but they vary across task states in each person. These findings have significant implications for mapping neural networks, and thus measure individual differences based on personality traits or mental disorders as well as identify biomarkers that occur across psychiatric disorders.
Similarly, Manning et al. contributed to those findings by discussing how dysfunction in multiple networks contributes to common behavioral conditions, and analyze cognitive controls, default mode, and salience networks observed in patients with depression (Manning).
Sadly, there is still a significant way ahead regarding on mental health research, to both contribute in patients and prevent the stigma regarding on behavioral diseases. As with many things in life, the more information the less likely wrong judgment and discrimination will play a big part in our lives and society. As these studies have shown, fMRI may have significant clinical effects in major depression in the future as well as other resistant anxiety disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder, OCD, phobias or panic disorders, which is very promising as a future treatment of other treatment-resistant anxiety disorders. Many people experiencing behavioral, mental and mood disorders who have not yet found a proper treatment may be considerably affected in a positive way if other researchers continue investigating the brain aspects of those conditions, considering that a high amount of those patients not only carry with their own suffering, but may also develop other disorders due to the lack of medical answers for their issues.
References
Gratton, C., Laumann, T. O., Nielsen, A. N., Greene, D. J., Gordon, E. M., Gilmore, A. W., Nelson, S. M., Coalson, R. S., Snyder, A. Z., Schlaggar, B. L., Dosenbach, N., & Petersen, S. E. (2018). Functional Brain Networks Are Dominated by Stable Group and Individual Factors, Not Cognitive or Daily Variation. Neuron, 98(2), 439–452.e5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.03.035
Manning, K., Wang, L., & Steffens, D. (2019). Recent advances in the use of imaging in psychiatry: functional magnetic resonance imaging of large-scale brain networks in late-life depression. F1000Research, 8, F1000 Faculty Rev-1366. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.17399.1
The State of Mental Health in America. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2021, from https://www.mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america
The World Health Report 2001: Mental Health Disorders Affect One in Four People. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2021 from https://www.who.int/news/item/28-09-2001-the-world-health-report-2001-mental-disorders-affect-one-in-four-people
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