With approximately half of U.S. adults expected to develop a mental illness during their lifetime, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending increased surveillance efforts as a way of bolstering treatment and prevention and improving public health.
“We know that mental illness is an important public health problem in itself and is also associated with chronic medical diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer,” said Ileana Arias, Ph.D., principle deputy director of CDC.