Juliette Gagliardi
Junior Researcher
Mental health in Italy - statistics & facts
Awareness of mental health disorders increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, when forced isolation from relatives, friends, and the external world in general, negatively impacted the mental health of millions. In 2020, a survey on the prevalence of mental illnesses in Europe, showed a high percentage of people suffering from at least one mental condition. In Italy, where more than 12 hours of work are needed to afford a psychologist session, this rate amounted to 24 percent.
Prevalence of mental disorders in Italy
As of 2022, 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 Umbria this rate almost reached 17 percent between 2021 and 2022. The diagnosis-related groups registering the lowest prevalence were dementia, organic mental disorders, alcoholism, and drug addiction.Mental health treatments, facilities, and resources
In Italy, the number of patients treated in mental health wards in 2022 was around 777 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 1.2 percent in 2022, most of them with a diagnosis of depression or mania and bipolar affective disorders. In this same period, few psychiatric hospitals in Italy were private, just 17 out of 340. Human resources, in terms of the number of psychiatrists employed in the country, has risen since 2018 and reached almost 12 thousand in 2022.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.
