Prevalence of mental disorders in Italy
As of 2020, depression and schizophrenia and psychoses were the most common mental health disorders in Italy. Prevalence varies by gender: women are more prone to suffer from depression, while men from schizophrenia and psychoses. Furthermore, high rates of elderly people reported experiencing depression symptoms in southern regions, like Sicily, Campania, and Apulia. Bipolar disorder is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental illness in Italy. From 2010 to 2019 the prevalence of bipolar disorder rose slightly but constantly.Mental health treatments, facilities, and resources
In Italy, the number of patients treated in mental health wards in 2020 was around 728 thousand, with most of them females and receiving treatment in the region of Lombardy. The percentage of patients with a severe mental health diagnosis leaving treatment was 1.03 percent in 2020, most of them with a diagnosis of depression or personality disorder. In this same period, few psychiatric hospitals in Italy were private, just 18 out of 346. Human resources, in terms of the number of psychiatrists employed in the country, has risen since 2018 and reached almost 11.5 thousand in 2021.Impact of COVID-19 on mental heath
In many OECD countries the prevalence of depression or symptoms of depression rose in 2020 with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Italy this figure grew from 5.5 percent before the pandemic to 17.3 percent in 2020. The share of Italians who experienced a negative mental health impact due to the pandemic amounted to 58 percent, as of September 2021. Anxiety and depression were the most common mental disorders experienced during the pandemic.
