Featured Facts on Friday

Millions of Americans are affected by mental illness yet remain untreated or under‐treated for their conditions.

• One in four adults—approximately 57.7 million Americans— experiences a mental health disorder in a
given year. One in 17 lives with a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, major depression or bipolar disorder, and about one in 10 children have a serious mental or emotional disorder.

• About 2.4 million Americans, or 1.1 percent of the adult population, lives with schizophrenia.

• Bipolar disorder affects 5.7 million American adults, approximately 2.6 percent of the adult population per
year.

•  Major depressive disorder affects 6.7 percent of adults, or about 14.8 million American adults. According to the 2004 World Health Report, this is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and Canada in ages between 15 to 44.

• Anxiety disorders, which include panic disorder, obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD), post‐traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder and phobias, affect about 18.1 percent of adults, an estimated 40 million individuals. Anxiety disorders frequently co‐occur with depression or addiction disorders.

• An estimated 5.2 million adults have co‐occurring mental health and addiction disorders. Of adults using
homeless services, thirty‐one percent reported having a combination of these conditions.

For more information on mental illness, visit the NAMI Southwestern Pennsylvania website. 

Source: NAMI National Fact Sheet