{"id":77636,"date":"2022-05-23T08:17:57","date_gmt":"2022-05-23T08:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/?post_type=problem_profile&#038;p=77636"},"modified":"2024-02-12T23:52:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T23:52:31","slug":"neglected-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"problem_profile","link":"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/problem-profiles\/neglected-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"More neglected areas in mental&nbsp;health"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"toc_container\" class=\"toc_white no_bullets\"><p class=\"toc_title\">Table of Contents<\/p><ul class=\"toc_list\"><li><a href=\"#why-might-mental-health-be-a-pressing-global-issue\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">1<\/span> Why might mental health be a pressing global issue?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#learn-more\"><span class=\"toc_number toc_depth_1\">2<\/span> Learn more<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n<h2><span id=\"why-might-mental-health-be-a-pressing-global-issue\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Why might mental health be a pressing global issue?<\/h2>\n<p>Improving mental health seems like one of the most direct ways of making people better off, since it&#8217;s specifically targeted at their subjective experience.<\/p>\n<p>Mental health in general gets much less attention than physical health from people thinking about how to make the world a better place because it&#8217;s not as well understood. This means it&#8217;s more neglected, but also likely means it&#8217;s harder to make progress.<\/p>\n<p>There are several promising areas for research into mental health that appear to have not yet been adequately explored, for example <a href=\"https:\/\/maps.org\/\">new drug therapies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Improving mental health <a href=\"https:\/\/strongminds.org\/\">in the developing world<\/a> might be an area where you can have a substantial impact, because it is particularly neglected by existing institutions and markets.<\/p>\n<p>Our guess is that improving physical health in poor countries is still likely to have a bigger impact on welfare for the same resources, given that there are several <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/problem-profiles\/health-in-poor-countries\/\">common diseases we can treat easily with more funding<\/a> &#8212; but we&#8217;re not sure.<\/p>\n<p>There is also some chance that, like economic growth and better physical health, better mental health in a population could have positive indirect effects that accumulate over time.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"learn-more\" class=\"toc-anchor\"><\/span>Learn more<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.happierlivesinstitute.org\/\">Happier Lives Institute<\/a> researches mental health interventions to assess their cost effectiveness and make recommendations \u2014 which we also discuss on our podcast with <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/podcast\/episodes\/elie-hassenfeld-givewell-critiques-and-lessons\/\">Elie Hassenfeld on two big-picture critiques of GiveWell&#8217;s approach, and six lessons from their recent work<\/a><\/li>\n<li>From the Happier Lives Institute: <a href=\"https:\/\/forum.effectivealtruism.org\/posts\/DvJ2vqfzTyzbypwon\/problem-area-report-mental-health\">Problem area report: mental health<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/podcast\/episodes\/leah-utyasheva-pesticide-suicide-prevention\/\">Leah Utyasheva on how to massively cut suicide rates in Sri Lanka, and her non-profit&#8217;s plan to do the same around the world<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/podcast\/episodes\/randy-nesse-evolutionary-medicine-psychiatry\/\">Randy Nesse on why evolution left us so vulnerable to depression and anxiety<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Podcast: <a href=\"\/podcast\/episodes\/spencer-greenberg-social-science\/\">Spencer Greenberg on speeding up social science 10-fold &amp; why plenty of startups cause harm<\/a>, where we discuss mental health as a cause area<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"tw--mt-6 tw--p-3 tw--pt-2 tw--bg-gray-lighter tw--rounded-md \">\n<h3 class=\"no-toc\">\t\t<a class=\"no-visited-styling tw--text-off-black hover:tw--text-off-black hover:tw--no-underline focus:tw--text-off-black\" href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/problem-profiles\/\">\t\t\t<small>Read next:&nbsp;<\/small>\t\t\tExplore other pressing world problems\t\t<\/a>\t<\/h3>\n<div class=\"tw--grid xs:tw--grid-flow-col tw--gap-3\">\n<div class=\"xs:tw--order-last tw--pt-1\">\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/problem-profiles\/\">\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/sea-ocean-sky-night-cosmos-view-826635-pxhere.com_-720x448.jpg\" alt=\"Decorative post preview\" width=\"720\" height=\"448\">\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"\">\n<div class=\"tw--pb-3\">\n<p>Want to learn more about global issues we think are especially pressing? See our list of issues that are large in scale, solvable, and neglected, according to our research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\">\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/problem-profiles\/\" class=\"btn btn-primary\">Continue &rarr;<\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"well visible-if-not-newsletter-subscriber margin-bottom margin-top padding-top-small padding-bottom-small\">\n<h3 class=\"no-toc\">Plus, join our newsletter and we&#8217;ll mail you a free book<\/h3>\n<p>Join our newsletter and we&#8217;ll send you a free copy of <em>The Precipice<\/em> \u2014 a book by philosopher Toby Ord about how to tackle the greatest threats facing humanity. <a href=\"https:\/\/80000hours.org\/free-book\/#giveaway-terms\">T&#038;Cs here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<form data-80k-object-id=\"\" data-80k-form-action=\"newsletter__subscribe\" action=\"\/\" method=\"post\" class=\"form-newsletter-signup form-newsletter-signup-step-1 margin-bottom-smaller\">\n<div class=\"mc-field-group input-group compact-input-group \"> <input type=\"email\" value=\"\" name=\"email\" required class=\"form-control email\" placeholder=\"Email address\" id=\"input_email\"> <span class=\"submit input-group-btn input-group-btn-right\"> <input type=\"submit\" id=\"mc-embedded-subscribe\" value=\"GET THE BOOK\" class=\"btn btn-primary \" \/> <\/span> <\/div>\n<div> <input name=\"_eightyk_action\" value=\"mailchimp_add_subscriber\" type=\"hidden\"> <input name=\"redirect_path_after_step_2\" value=\"\/newsletter\/welcome\/\" type=\"hidden\"> <\/div>\n<div style=\"position: absolute; left: -5000px;\"> <input type=\"text\" name=\"b_abc12f58bbe8075560abdc5b7_43bc1ae55c\" tabindex=\"-1\" value=\"\"> <\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":78295,"parent":0,"menu_order":26,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[291],"class_list":["post-77636","problem_profile","type-problem_profile","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-problems"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - 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