Mental disorders in Mexico 1990-2021. Results from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 study

Mental disorders are one of the main causes of years lived with disability, although there is a lack of recent estimates of their magnitude.

To report the trends of mental disorders prevalence, years lived with disability and years of healthy life lost by sex, age and state in Mexico.

The Global Burden of Disease database for Mexico was used.

There were an estimated 18.1 million persons with some mental disorder in 2021, which represented an increase of 15.4% in comparison with 2019. Depressive and anxiety disorders did significantly increase between 2019 and 2021, which is possibly related to COVID-19, the confinement and the situations of grief experienced during the pandemic.

Mental disorders have considerably increased since the only national mental health survey that used diagnostic criteria to evaluate their prevalence. It is important to invest in epidemiological studies, prevention and care of mental disorders, which are among the leading causes of years lived with disability in the country.