The Treatment Gap - Neglect of Mental Health in the Americas

Dr. Robert Kohn, MD, is a specialist in geriatric care and developmental disability who works as a psychiatrist in Rhode Island, Providence. Dr. Robert Kohn has also published academic material concerning the treatment gap between the rates of mental illness in the Americas and the treatment rates for mental health there.

Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are how psychiatrists measure the impact of disability on individuals and populations by examining the time that has been lost to disability. It was first devised by researchers at the University of Washington. Mental illness and substance abuse account for 10.5 percent of DALYs in the Americas, across which the global burden of disease (GBD) is unevenly distributed. North America has a significantly higher GBD, meaning that it accounts for a markedly high share of the world’s significantly impactful disease than Latin America and the Caribbean.

The treatment gap is significant because it describes how well these countries are prepared to handle their GBD. Other statistics like the median healthcare workforce can reveal more about how accessible healthcare is and lead to troubling findings: Peru, for example, has little to no access to antidepressants or antipsychotics in small clinics and health centers (less than 20 percent have any stock at all). The treatment gap for children and adolescents is high across the Americas, from 64 to 86 percent, which can be explained by the poor ratio of child psychiatrists to patients in the area.