• Last, a disparity exists in funding for research to find the causes of, and cures for, disorders of the brain’s mind. Psychiatric disorders and substance use cost society more than $300 billion annually in the United States, yet investment in research on those disorders pales compared with the support provided to the study of other medical disorders.
It’s time society closed this ugly gap
Lack of parity extends across a broad swath of issues related to mental illness, with a huge personal and material cost to the 25% of the US population that suffers a mental disorder. It’s time to close the shameful gap and end this harmful discrimination. Let’s hope that ongoing changes in health care will, finally, reverse the injustice. Given the broken promises of the past, however, let’s not count our chickens before they hatch….