Fifteen per cent of the Maltese people suffered mental health problems at some point in their life, a report has found.
Women are more likely to have mental health problems as people who are going through difficult times with their spouse and widowed people.
According to the study of 5,500 people, carried out as part of the EU-wide European Health Interview Survey, people with a lower level of education are more prone to mental health problems.
Such problems, which included chronic depression and chronic anxiety, also increased with age, Health Information and Research Department director Neville Calleja said.
Friendships play an important role in warding off mental health problems and the study found that people with a bigger circle of friends have a lower susceptibility to mental health problems.
The study also showed that money played a big part in mental health, with those falling within the lowest income groups being three times as likely to report chronic anxiety and depression than higher earners.
Although the prevalence of mental health problems was not low, they were stigmatised, something that could have affected the figures, Community Care Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea said.
"Many people are embarrassed to say they were suffering from mental health problems or had gone to a psychiatrist at some point in their lives," he said.
Sufferers were often bullied, Mr Galea said, adding that this did not affect just children but even adults. "A Żejtun construction worker, who had a low IQ, was bullied by his colleagues who used to crush his coffee thermos with a bulldozer," he said.
Mr Galea stressed the importance of recognising the problem early, possibly at childhood, and starting treatment as soon as possible.
While 6.6 per cent of Maltese reported suffering from chronic depression, the condition is not included in the list of illnesses entitling patients to free medicines.
Questioned about this, Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, director general for strategy and sustainability, said that while thousands of depression sufferers were taking medicines, these had to be prescribed for schizoaffective disorder. The health authorities were looking at addressing this "misentitlement" as part of the review of conditions on the Schedule VI list.
Mental health is a problem in all EU member states and is estimated to affect about 50 million people. Every nine minutes, someone commits suicide, amounting to 54,000 every year.
"The elderly are more vulnerable but we need to get rid of the perception that it is normal for older people to suffer from mental health problems," Mr Galea said.
The Maltese rank the highest, together with the Norwegians, when compared to the mental health index of 20 countries members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), with a local mean score of 70. The Turks are the least mentally healthy, scoring about 47.
The Maltese people's lifetime prevalence of mental health problems is also the lowest when compared to 10 OECD countries, including the US, Japan, Germany, Belgium and France.
Facts and figures
• Almost eight per cent of Maltese reported suffering from chronic anxiety and 6.6 per cent from chronic depression at some point in their lives.
• Only 2.5 per cent of people went to a psychologist or a psychotherapist.
• Five per cent of respondents took medicines for depression and another five per cent took them for anxiety. Women take more medicines for depression and anxiety than men.
• About four per cent of the population take sleeping pills.
• Almost 65 per cent of respondents said they felt full of life all the time or most of the time in the four weeks before the interview and 57.5 per cent had a lot of energy, 73.4 per cent said they were happy and 64.6 per cent felt calm and peaceful.
• However, 11.5 per cent of respondents felt tired, 17.6 per cent felt nervous and 5.6 per cent felt depressed all or most of the time.