Global mental health cases nearly double to 1.2 billion, study

EuroNews · 🇫🇷 public France · May 22, 2026 · 560 words · By Marta Iraola Iribarren

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What to know about Global mental health cases nearly double to 1.2 billion, study

A surge in anxiety and depression has pushed global mental health cases to 1.2 billion, highlighting a growing burden that health systems are not prepared to meet.

Claims checked 12

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

A surge in anxiety and depression has pushed global mental health cases to 1.2 billion, highlighting a growing burden that health systems are not prepared to meet.

Why it matters

The number of people living with mental health conditions has nearly doubled over the past 30 years, driven mainly by sharp rises in anxiety and depression worldwide, according to a new study.

Common ground

The analysis, published in the medical journal The Lancet as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023, estimates that around 1.2 billion people were living with a mental health condition in 2023.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Global mental health cases nearly double to 1.2 billion, study?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that neurodevelopmental and behavioural conditions — including ADHD, conduct disorder, and autism — were more common among men?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.euronews.com/health/2026/05/22/global-mental-health-surge-12-billion…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 12 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4

help Insufficient Evidence 2

schedule Pending 2

info Single Source 2

verified Verified 1

verified Verified By Reference 1

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Claim 1: “neurodevelopmental and behavioural conditions — including ADHD, conduct disorder, and autism — were more common among men.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided for this claim in the search results.

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Claim 2: “The highest mental health burden globally was found among teenagers aged 15 to 19”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 3: “The number of people living with mental health conditions has nearly doubled over the past 30 years”

CORROBORATED

Two independent web search results explicitly state that the number of people living with mental disorders has 'nearly doubled' since 1990.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1990th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 990th year of the 2nd millennium, the 90th …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The year 1990 in film involved many significant events as shown below. Universal Pictures celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1990, despite its actual 75th anniversary taking place in 1987.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_in_film

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Richard Tiffany Gere ( GHEER; born August 31, 1949) is an American actor. He began appearing in films in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) and a starring role in D…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gere

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 4: “The analysis, published in the medical journal The Lancet as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023”

VERIFIED

Web search results confirm that the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2023 exists and that GBD findings are published in The Lancet.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Disease burden is the impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators. It is often quantified in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or dis…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_burden

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) is a comprehensive regional and global research program of disease burden that assesses mortality and disability from major diseases, injuries, and risk factor…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Burden_of_Disease_Study

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, heart diseases, cancers, di…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-communicable_disease

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 5: “Among women, depression and anxiety were the most common conditions.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that depression and anxiety are the most common conditions among women.

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web search NEUTRAL — Women’s mental health problems are more likely to be treated than men’s when seeking treatment. An eating disorder affects almost ten times more women than it does men. Anorexia (excessive weight loss…
https://dualdiagnosis.org/mental-health-and-addiction/common…

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web search NEUTRAL — Mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in all countries and communities, affecting people of all ages and income levels.Anxiety and depressive disorders are the m…
https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-peop…

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web search NEUTRAL — More women are suffering from mental health issues.It leads to depression, anxiety and other behavioral disorders. Unemployment. Not being able to earn a living for their family significantly contribu…
https://www.mindshiftwellnesscenter.com/common-mental-health…

verified

Claim 6: “major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders, which increased by 131% and 158% respectively”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

The provided evidence for this claim contains irrelevant results (TV series, dictionary definitions) and does not contain the specific percentage increases for depressive and anxiety disorders.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — General elections were held in Haiti between 16 December 1990 and 20 January 1991. The presidential election, held on 16 December, resulted in a victory for Jean-Bertrand Aristide of the National Fron…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990–91_Haitian_general_electi…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_of_Kashmiri_Hindus

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) use a unified ranking system across the Army, Navy, and Air Force, with most insignia standardized. The Marine Corps, although part of the Navy, is an except…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_military_ranks

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 7: “The authors 620 million cases of mental disorders among females and 552 million among males”

SINGLE SOURCE

The specific figures of 620 million females and 552 million males are found in one specific web search result.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — In 2023, 620 million women of all ages were living with a mental disorder compared to 552 million men of all ages globally. Women accounted for 92.6 million DALYs, compared to 78.6 million among men, …
https://www.healthdata.org/news-events/newsroom/news-release…

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web search NEUTRAL — What exactly are Personality Disorders? How can they be diagnosed? Can we prevent some of them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E1JiDFxFGk

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web search NEUTRAL — Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common types of mental health disorders among both men and women. Suicide remains a devastating outcome, claiming an estimated 727 000 lives in 2021 alone…
https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-peop…

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Claim 8: “making them the world’s two most common mental health conditions.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources state that anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common types of mental health disorders globally.

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web search NEUTRAL — Major is produced by G. Mahesh Babu Entertainment, Sony Pictures International Productions, and A+S Movies. Produced in Telugu cinema, it was filmed simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi languages, it fo…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_(film)

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web search NEUTRAL — 6 days ago · The meaning of MAJOR is greater in dignity, rank, importance, or interest. How to use major in a sentence.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/major

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Major: Directed by Sashi Kiran Tikka. With Adivi Sesh, Prakash Raj, Revathi, Saiee Manjrekar. Based on the life of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who fought during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9851854/

schedule

Claim 9: “Exposure rates remained relatively stable over time and accounted for only 18% of mental disorder Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in 2023”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 10: “global mental health cases to 1.2 billion”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web sources report that over 1 billion people (with one source specifically mentioning 'nearly 1.2 billion') are living with mental health conditions, citing WHO data.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In mathematics, particularly in mathematical analysis and measure theory, an approximately continuous function is a concept that generalizes the notion of continuous functions by replacing the ordinar…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximately_continuous_funct…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — An approximation is anything that is intentionally similar but not exactly equal to something else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approximation

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Hobby Lobby smuggling scandal started in 2009 when representatives of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores received a large number of clay bullae and tablets originating in the ancient Near East.…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby_smuggling_scandal

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 11: “Persistent depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa were also more prevalent in women.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was provided for this claim in the search results.

info

Claim 12: “That marks a 95% increase since 1990.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the 'nearly doubled' claim is corroborated, the specific '95% increase' figure is not explicitly repeated across multiple independent sources in the provided evidence, though it is consistent with the 'nearly doubled' narrative.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.