According to information fromt the National Statistics Institute (INEGI) and the Ramón de la Fuente Psychiatric Institute, young people are particularly vulnerable to mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, anorexia and bulimia.

Of the 3,200 young people who commit suicide each year in Mexico, 80 percent of them suffered from a mental illness, said Manuel Sánchez de Carmona, psychologist and member of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.

Sánchez said that stress and the use of drugs or alcohol can trigger the development of a mental illness. In the case of young people, often all three are present, he added.

In Mexico, 3 percent of young people suffer from anorexia and bulimia, 1.6 percent have a bipolar disorder, and 0.7 percent have schizophrenia according to the Health Secretariat. The World Health Organization (WHO) calculates that worldwide, 340 million people suffer from severe depression, an estimated 7.5 million of whom are Mexican.

The Health Secretariat reports that less than 1 percent of the national budget for the health sector is designated for services related to mental illness.

Early diagnosis is rare, said Sánchez de Carmona, since "in all of these disorders, except depression, young people think their symptoms are normal."

The onset of mental illness often occurs between the ages of 15 and 25 because it is a period in which humans go through dramatic physical and mental transformations. While often there is a genetic predisposition to mental illness, that is not true in all cases, said Sánchez. "In many of the cases of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, there is no genetic inheritance," he said.

When mental illness is detected early in its development, treatment can help young people carry on a normal life and even a successful future. But when left alone, the illness advances and "many lives end in suicide, or unstable social situations and lack of professional success because the person's illness affects all of their interactions with other people," said Sánchez.

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are incurable, but can be treated. Anxiety and depression can be controlled and even cured, and eating disorders are curable.

BIPOLAR DISORDER

Bipolar disorder, also called manic-depression, is a chronic illness characterized by alternating periods of euphoria and severe depression that may last weeks or months.

"If we looked at the calendar of a bipolar person, we would see that in September, he slept only 3 hours a night while going to school, work and the gym without feeling tired. On the weekend, probably he went to Cuernavaca by bicycle and still had energy to party at night. But in November, he spent most of his time in bed feeling sad and not wanting to go out at all," said Sánchez.

Often, people are not diagnosed with bipolar disorder until they reach their 40s, said Sánchez, adding "the only time young people come to my office is when their parents bring them. Frequently, the symptoms of anxiety, panic and mania are written off as normal teen behavior."

In a study by Lilly Laboratories Mexico, in which 1,000 bipolar patients participated, 80 percent of them had become ill before they reached the age of 25, and most had lived with the disorder for 15 years before getting treatment. "People believe that their manic behavior is normal but when they are depressed, they seek a doctor to help them return to the manic state," said Sánchez.

Bipolar disorder is the sixth cause of disability worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Living with the illness without treatment can be deadly, since 20 percent of bipolar people commit suicide, and another 25 percent attempt it.

Prescribed medicines can help control both manic and depressive episodes, helping patients to lead normal lives.

DEPRESSION

The Mexican Psychiatry Association estimates 7.5 million people suffer from severe depression in Mexico. By 2010, the number will increase to 35 million, the association predicts.

The WHO projects that by 2020, this mental illness will move up to become the second cause of disability internationally, after heart conditions.

Preston J. Garrison, general secretary of the World Federation for Mental Health explained that depression is characterized not only by sadness of lack of interest in activities, but in most cases also by physical symptoms such as headaches and back, neck or abdominal pain.

"Eighty percent of patients with depression first go to a doctor to treat physical pain. The result is that 75 percent are prescribed the wrong medicine," said Garrison.

He added that patients have symptoms for up to a year before they seek treatment because they don't believe they have a mental illness. The illness is often genetic, but can be provoked by stress, and a failure to receive timely treatment.

SCHIZOPHRENIA

One of the most debilitating of mental illnesses, schizophrenia affects 0.7 percent of the Mexican population. Only 10 percent of schizophrenics have a stable job.

"The patient loses all sense of reality. The illness is characterized by episodes of hallucination and hearing imaginary voices," said Richard Keefe, psychologist at the U.S. National Institute for Mental Health.

The onset of the illness usually occurs between the ages of 17 and 30 for men, and between ages 20 and 40 for women. Approximately 25 percent of patients experience a single episode of schizophrenia while the rest are disabled for the rest of their lives.

NO SINGLE CAUSE

No single cause of the illness has been identified, although environmental factors such as stress play an important role in its development. Children of schizophrenics have a 10 percent probability of suffering from the illness.

Treatment has three components: medication to reduce symptoms, family education to handle the illness, and rehabilitation to integrate the person in society.