Health Ministry Official Claims 25% of Society Suffering from Mental Disorders; 'Out of Our Control'

A senior official from the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Health has announced that "25% of Iran's population suffers from some form of mental disorders." He claimed that many factors contributing to the prevalence of these disorders are "beyond the control of the Ministry of Health" and are related to social and cultural issues. In a report from the government news agency ISNA, Mohammad Reza Shalbaghian, head of the Mental Health, Social Health, and Addiction Office of the ministry, referred to recent studies indicating that "mood disorders," including "depression and anxiety, are the most common mental disorders in Iran." Contrary to expert opinions, this official did not mention the increasing rates of suicides and their political and economic causes as a significant part of the disorders stemming from social despair and depression. Shalbaghian also claimed that the prevalence of schizophrenia in the world is about 1%, and "in Iran, it has been reported to be slightly lower than the global average." He emphasized that patients with this condition require various types of support, including medical, rehabilitative, and social assistance. This psychiatrist added, "Many schizophrenia patients need hospitalization in treatment centers. However, the Ministry of Health's approach is to reintegrate these patients into normal life with minimal hospitalization and with the support of family and society." The head of the Mental Health Office further stressed that "preventing mental disorders through early screening and initial diagnosis" is the main strategy of this office for preventing mental disorders. He claimed that after diagnosis, "treatment can be provided through medical and non-medical methods, depending on the patient's condition." Meanwhile, reports indicate that with the continued reduction of government support and the removal of preferential currency for medicine next year, media outlets have predicted an "unexpected" increase in drug prices, imposing additional pressures on wage-earning classes such as workers and retirees. Previously, the ILNA news agency reported on Sunday, December 2, that one of the consequences of removing preferential currency was calculating drug prices at the new rate and importing them with free currency, stating that "prices will increase in an unexpected manner." The fourteenth government, led by Masoud Pezeshkian, has reduced the budget for importing essential goods and medicines by $3 billion in the 2025 budget proposal, decreasing it from $15 billion to $12 billion, and allocated a budget of 90 trillion tomans to the Food and Drug Organization, which has drawn criticism from experts and the medical community. The inaction of the Islamic Republic regarding drug and treatment issues, from the perspective of Hassan Nayeb Hashem and Ahmad Alavi, highlights the continuation of the health crisis in Iran with the removal of preferential currency for drugs under Pezeshkian's government.