Disease Control Priorities

Mental, neurological, and substance use disorders are common, highly disabling, and associated with significant premature mortality. The impact of these disorders on the social and economic well-being of individuals, families, and societies is large, growing, and underestimated. Despite this burden, these disorders have been systematically neglected, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, with pitifully small contributions to scaling up cost-effective prevention and treatment strategies. Systematically compiling the substantial existing knowledge to address this inequity is the central goal of this volume. This evidence-base can help policy makers in resource-constrained settings as they prioritize programs and interventions to address these disorders.

Dr Vikram Patel is a Professor of International Mental Health and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK). He is the Joint Director of the School's Centre for Global Mental Health. He is also the Co-Director of the Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries at the Public Health Foundation of India. He is a co-founder of Sangath and member of its Managing Committee. He serves on the Ministry of Health (Government of India) Mental Health Policy Group and National Rural Health Mission ASHA Mentoring Group. He also serves on the WHO's Expert Advisory Group for Mental Health and the Technical Steering Committee of the Department of Child and Adolescent Health. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the UK and won the Chalmers Medal from the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2009. His book Where There Is No Psychiatrist (Gaskell, 2003) has become a widely used manual for community mental health in developing countries. He is a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health.

Ramanan Laxminarayan is a senior fellow at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC. His research includes the integration of epidemiological models of infectious disease transmission and the economic analysis of public health problems. He has worked with the World Health Organization on evaluating malaria treatment policy in Africa, and recently served on a National Academy of Science/Institute of Medicine Committee on the Economics of Anti-malarial Drugs. He teaches international health policy in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and development economics at the Johns Hopkins University 's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies