Anxiety found as Koreans’ top mental illness

 Anxiety disorder ranked No. 1 on a list of mental illnesses in Korea, according to a study by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

 In “The Epidemiological Survey of Mental Disorders in Korea,” 6,022 randomly selected Koreans were asked if they have suffered from 25 major mental illnesses for the past year. Among them, 16 percent said they suffered from anxiety disorder.

 About 6.8 percent of respondents answered that they have experienced anxiety disorder, which surpassed the percentage of alcohol and nicotine users by 2.4 percent. Mood disorders, which include depression, ranked third on the list.

 People with mental illnesses are more prone to commit suicide, as they have difficulty finding ways of releasing stress. Korea has the highest suicide rate among OECD countries, Statistics Korea said.

 “Reforming community mental health centers and developing a connected health-care system is necessary,” Jung Jin-wook of Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs said.

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