Mental Health and the Global Agenda

To the Editor: Becker and Kleinman (July 4 issue)(1) highlight the burden of mental diseases worldwide. Major concerns are for people living in less-developed countries (because of the low level of resources devoted to neuropsychiatric illnesses) and for young people (because of the difficulty accessing mental care). We would like to emphasize the enormous suffering associated with mental disorders in older people. The prevalence of mental diseases in older people has increased dramatically in the past decades, not only because of aging itself (e.g., Alzheimer's disease), but also because of new emotional and sociodemographic situations to which the elderly are ...