Prevalence of mental health disorders in Italy 2022, by diagnosis

In 2022, about 154.2 per 10 thousand individuals in Italy were treated for some kind of mental health disorder. This statistic breaks down this figure by diagnosis. According to the data, the most common mental health disorders treated among the Italian population were depression, schizophrenia, and psychoses. The diagnosis-related groups registering the lowest prevalence were dementia, organic mental disorders, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

Mental health and gender

Gender plays a relevant role in mental health, in the probability specific mental disorders will occur and in the decision to seek help. Women, for example, are more prone to suffer from depression, while men from schizophrenia and psychoses. In 2021, roughly 43.5 women per 10,000 inhabitants were suffering from depression, while this figure was 25.6 per 10,000 men. During the same period, the highest rate of patients treated in mental health wards was among women.

Mental health ward patients

The number of people that are treated in mental health wards in Italy varies greatly across the country. In 2021, the region with the highest number of mental health ward patients was Lombardy, with over 130 thousand, followed by the regions of Campania and Emilia Romagna, with 76 thousand and almost 68 thousand patients, respectively. During the same period, most of the patients treated in mental health wards in Italy were aged between 45 and 64 years.