Mental Health Statistics (Hansard, 31 January 2002)

§ Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Chris Ruane, dated 30 January 2002: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question about how many people suffered mental health problems by region. (30589) Estimates of the total number of people suffering from mental health problems in different regions are not available from current statistical sources. However, estimates of the percentage of adults aged 16 to 74 years living in private households who were suffering from a range of mental health problems can be obtained from the results of a survey carried out in 2000. This survey of psychiatric 509W morbidity among adults in private households was carried by the Office for National Statistics on behalf of the Department of Health, the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. Approximately 8,800 people from all parts of Great Britain participated in the survey that involved personal interviews, which provided assessments of a range of mental disorders. An overview of the results of the survey was published last year in the report "Psychiatric morbidity among adults Living in Private Households, 2000" by Singleton et al., which is available from The Stationery Office or can be downloaded from the National Statistics website (www.statistics.gov.uk). The report presents estimates of the proportion of people suffering from neurotic disorders (such as anxiety and depression), psychotic disorders (for example, schizophrenia and manic depression) and alcohol and drug dependence, by NHS Regional Office area in England and in Scotland and Wales. It should be noted that, because the assessment instruments used covered different time periods and people may have more than one disorder, it is not possible to add the figures together to give a total number of people with a mental health problem.