Over the years, U.S. surgeons general have repeatedly turned public attention to smoking. Twenty-eight of their 51 reports have focused on smoking, including the famous 1964 study that led to warnings on tobacco products. But that number is expected to grow to nearly 3.2 million by 2003. The report defines mental disorders as health conditions that are marked by alterations in thinking, mood or behavior. Alzheimer's disease, for example, is a mental disorder largely defined by changes in thinking, such as forgetting.
Depression is a mental disorder marked by alterations in mood.
At a White House news conference, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher said strong mental health is an important component to overall health and well-being. Augustus Griffith, a founder of the Dallas County Consumers Council for Mental Health Advocacy, agrees with the report's findings. Nobody is totally mentally healthy, I believe, at any given time, either. Funding may benefit Charles M. Cooper of Dallas, chairman of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, said the study will help the agency lobby the Texas Legislature next session for more funding for medications and other treatments. In recent years, for example, new therapies have been developed to treat schizophrenia.