Disorders within the Neuropsychiatric Category
The total burden of disability can be measured in units called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). DALYs represent the total number of years lost to illness, disability, or premature death within a given population. They are calculated by adding the number of years of life lost to the number of years lived with disability for a certain disease or disorder.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates below show the total percentage of DALYs contributed by the neuropsychiatric disorders category (in green) within the United States and Canada, as well as the top individual disorders that contribute to this category (in purple). Depression makes up more than one third of the DALYs in this category, and on its own represents 10 percent of all DALYs in the U.S. and Canada.