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Mental illness burden of disease

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Key points Mental health and burden of disease Spotlight data Where can I find more information?

Key points

The Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024 found that:

Mental health conditions and substance use disorders were responsible for 15% of the total burden of disease in Australia in 2024.

The total burden of mental and substance use disorders has increased from 25 to 33 between 2003 and 2024 after adjusting for age.

Anxiety disorders contributed 3.9% of the total disease burden in Australia.

Mental health and burden of disease

What is burden of disease?
The concept of ‘burden of disease’ has been developed to measure the amount of healthy life lost due to injury, illness or premature death. Burden of disease is measured using the summary measure of disability-adjusted life years (DALY, also known as the total burden in this report). One DALY is one year of healthy life lost to disease and injury. DALY caused by living in poor health (non-fatal burden) are the ‘years lived with disability’ (YLD). DALY caused by premature death (fatal burden) are the ‘years of life lost’ (YLL) and are measured against an ideal life expectancy. The use of DALYs allows the impact of premature deaths and living with health impacts from disease or injury to be compared and reported in a consistent manner. This report also presents the total burden or DALY as an ‘age-standardised’ rate (per 1,000 population).

What are mental health and substance use disorders?

This report outlines the burden of disease experienced by Australians due to mental health conditions and substance use disorders as estimated in the Australian Burden of Disease Study (ABDS) 2024. Mental health conditions and substance use disorders encompasses a broad range of conditions including affective disorders (major depressive disorder, dysthymia and bipolar disorder), anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use disorders, child behavioural and developmental disorders, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability. It excludes suicidal behaviour, self-harm, drug poisoning and drug overdose (which are included in injuries) and dementia, a condition affecting the nervous system (which is included in neurological conditions). For brevity, the label for this group is shortened to ‘mental and substance use disorders’ for this report.

Spotlight data

Overview of total burden of mental and substance use disorders for Australians

Overview dashboard: In 2024, the disease causing the most burden from the mental and substance use disorders group was anxiety disorders, with an age-standardised DALY of 8.6. Second was depressive disorders (6.9), followed by autism spectrum disorders (3.8), alcohol use disorders (2.9) and eating disorders (2.3). The disease contributing the highest DALYs for females followed a similar trend: anxiety disorders (10.4), depressive disorders (7.9) and eating disorders (3). For males, the disease which contributed the most DALYs were anxiety disorders (6.8), depressive disorders (5.9) and autism spectrum disorders (5.8).

Overview dashboard: In 2024, the disease causing the most burden from the mental and substance use disorders group was anxiety disorders, with an age-standardised DALY of 8.6. Second was depressive disorders (6.9), followed by autism spectrum disorders (3.8), alcohol use disorders (2.9) and eating disorders (2.3). The disease contributing the highest DALYs for females followed a similar trend: anxiety disorders (10.4), depressive disorders (7.9) and eating disorders (3). For males, the disease which contributed the most DALYs were anxiety disorders (6.8), depressive disorders (5.9) and autism spectrum disorders (5.8).

Link to data tables: Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024, 

The Australia Burden of Disease Study 2024 estimated that mental and substance use disorders were responsible for 15% of the total burden of disease.

In 2024, the specific causes which contributed the most burden from the mental and substance use disorders group were:

  • anxiety disorders (3.9%)
  • depressive disorders (3.1%)
  • autism spectrum disorders (1.8%) (AIHW 2024).

How does the mental and substance use disorder total burden vary by sex?

For mental and substance use disorders, males and females had the same age-standardised DALY rate in 2024 (33 per 1,000 population). Anxiety disorders contributed the largest number of DALYs for both females and males (10 and 6.7 per 1,000 respectively).

The specific causes which contributed the largest number of DALYs from the mental and substance use disorders group for females were:

  • anxiety disorders (10.4 per 1,000 population and 32% of total burden from mental and substance use disorders)
  • depressive disorders (7.8 and 24%)
  • eating disorders (3 and 8.7%).

The specific causes which contributed largest number of DALYs from the mental and substance use disorders group for males were:

  • anxiety disorders (6.7 per 1,000 population and 21% of total burden from mental and substance use disorders)
  • depressive disorders (5.8 and 18%)
  • autism spectrum disorders (5.8 and 18%).

Note: results for conduct disorder should be interpreted with caution as moderate transformations and modelling were required to produce estimates using relatively old data.

Trends over time analyses for autism spectrum disorders should be limited to 2018 and 2024 due to changes in the primary data source, which resulted in higher ascertainment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders in more recent years.

What is the fatal and non-fatal burden of mental and substance use disorders?

Despite mental and substance use disorders being the second contributor to total disease burden in Australia, the fatal burden for the disease group is small (1.8%) with majority of the burden being due to non-fatal burden (98%). The fatal burden of mental and substance use disorders is considerably lower than it is for all disease groups (1.8% compared with 46%). However, the non-fatal burden is almost twice that of all disease groups (98% and 54% respectively) (AIHW 2024).

How has the total burden of mental health and substance use disorders changed over time?

There has been a 31% increase in the total burden for mental and substance use disorders between 2003 and 2024 from 25 per 1,000 population to 33. Contrastingly, there has been a 11% decrease in total burden across all disease groups during the same time.

Some mental and substance use disorders had a notable percentage change in the age-standardised disease burden rate between 2003 and 2024:

  • anxiety disorders increased by 34%
  • bipolar affective disorder increased by 24%
  • eating disorders increased by 23%
  • depressive disorders increased by 18% (AIHW 2024).

Where can I find more information?

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