> A universal health care system would probably fix a lot of this, as it should reduce the number of untreated mental disorders. The expression "reduce the num

> A universal health care system would probably fix a lot of this, as it should reduce the number of untreated mental disorders. The expression "reduce the number of untreated mental disorders" implies that there are treatments for mental disorders. There aren't. Talk therapy has been shown to be an example of the placebo effect, and the various drugs that exist have a checkered history, sometimes treating symptoms, but never treating causes. If a mental patient is given drugs that prevent the disease's symptoms from manifesting themselves, that's not a treatment, it's a palliative, and the drug therefore must be used forever (which makes the drug companies happy). Many of the most popular drugs have serious side effects including anomalous weight gain, diabetes and heart disease. In the long term, this may change as neuroscience takes over from psychiatry and psychology, a process that has begun in earnest, but that hasn't yet made a dent in the problem.