Chronic disability caused

Bipolar disorder is one of the leading causes of chronic disability worldwide and shares characteristics of both major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. ° Bipolar disorder is primarily treated in the public mental health sector, and a majority of patients receive lifelong disabihty coverage because of compromised functioning. The total cost to society for bipolar disorder is enormous and is exceeded only by the costs for treating individuals with schizophrenia. It is estimated that the total economic impact of bipolar disorder in the United States is approximately 45 billion. ... 

Osteoarthritis (OA) is themostcommonjoint disease, affecting nearly 50% of those over 65 years of age and almost all individuals over age 75. " OA ranks second only to cardiovascular disease in causing chronic disability, making this condition of substantial importance to public health. Appreciation of the human and economic costs of this disease has prompted exciting advances concerning etiology and treatment. 

Psychiatrists prescribe antipsychotics to treat mental illnesses that cause patients to experience marked breaks with reality (psychosis). The most common of such disorders is schizophrenia, which is a chronic, disabling, persistent, and severe brain disease that sigpiificantly impairs brain functioning and affects 1 percent of the world s population, including 3 million people in the United States alone. Antipsychotic medications are referred to as typical or atypical. Psychiatrists prescribe anxiolytics (antianxiety medications) to treat anxiety disorders, which include panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychiatrists prescribe antidepressants and mood stabilizers to treat the symptoms of mood disorders, the most common and severe of which are major depression and bipolar disorder. 

In cases which recover from the pulmonary edema, there is usually no permanent disability, but pneumonia may develop later. Concns of 100—150ppm are dangerous for short exposures of 30 to 60 minutes. Concns of 200—700ppm may be fatal after even very short exposures Continued exposure to low concns of the fumes, insufficient to cause pulmonary edema, is said to result in chronic irritation of the respiratory tract, with cough, headache, loss of appetite, dyspepsia, corrosion of the teeth and gradual loss of strength... 

MS, a chronic demyelinating disease of the CNS, is the most common cause of non-traumatic disability among young adults (Frohman et al. 2006). At the cellular level, MS is mediated by myelin-specific CD4h- T cells that destroy oligodendrocytes... 

Diabetes continues to be a major cause of excessive morbidity, severe disability and premature death in Western populations. In developed countries, the cost of diabetes to society may be estimated to be as high as 5% of the total health costs, much of which relates to the chronic vascular complications of this disorder (Williams, 1991). The vascular lesion in diabetes consists of (1) microangiopathy, distinguished by thickening of capillary basement membranes resulting in increased vascular permeability, which is clinically manifested as diabetic retinopathy (Fig. 12.1a) and/or nephropathy (Fig. 12.1b), and (2) macroangiopathy (Fig. 12.2),... 

Musculoskeletal disorders are commonly self-treated, so true estimates of the incidence of both acute and chronic injury are difficult to obtain. Musculoskeletal disorders, including arthritis, are among the most frequently reported health problems in the United States.5 These disorders account for a large portion of the utilization of health care resources and are the leading cause of work-related disability in all ages, including Americans aged 65 and over. 

In the past several decades there has been increased incidence of depression, which motivated Gerald Klerman to describe this era as the age of melancholia [5], The lifetime prevalence of depression in the U.S. is higher in women (21.3%) than in men (12.7%). Although the rates of major depression vary across the world, data from fifty countries support the notion that this disease is the fourth leading cause of disability worldwide (second in developed countries) [3]. Longitudinal studies verify that the typical course of the disease is recurrent, with periods of recovery and periods of depression symptoms however, approximately 17% of patients have a chronic unremitting disease [6], Depression is the major cause of suicidal behavior and the rate of suicidal attempts has been estimated to be around 56% in depressed patients [7]. 

Schizophrenia is a chronic and devastating mental illness that affects approximately 1% of the world s population [1]. Men and women are affected equally and the incident rate is nearly the same for all countries and ethnic groups throughout the world. The disease is ranked among the top ten causes of disability worldwide [1]. 

The primary indication for antidepressant agents is the treatment of MDD. Major depression, with a lifetime prevalence of around 17% in the USA and a point prevalence of 5%, is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. MDD represents one of the most common causes of disability in the developed world. In addition, major depression is commonly associated with a variety of medical conditions—from chronic pain to coronary artery disease. When depression coexists with other medical conditions, the patient s disease burden increases, and the quality of life—and often the prognosis for effective treatment—decreases significantly. 

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