A recent survey sampling of China’s 127,000 college students showed that 20.3 percent of those surveyed are suffering from various psychological problems, according to Guangming Daily.

Tan Jianfeng, an expert from the No. 215 People’s Liberation Army Hospital, said that China now has some 16 million patients with psychological problems, one third of whom witnessed the first symptoms during their childhood or puberty.

It is estimated that psychological problems exist in some 20 to 30 percent of Chinese families and most victims are children.

As China continues its fast economic development and comprehensive social transformation, psychological illnesses will become the country’s most commonly occurring health problem in the following 20 years, outranking coronary heart diseases, respiratory diseases and cancer.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a perfect condition and complete stability of physical, psychological and social factors.

However, most Chinese people only care for physical pathological changes and still associate psychological problems with schizophrenia. Phenomena such as insomnia and depression, which are signs of potential psychological diseases, are often not part of people’s medical focus.

Statistics show that psychological factors account for 70 percent of all causes of disease. Emotional problems may lead to hypertension, coronary diseases, ulcers and skin diseases.

Psychologists from Beijing Normal University said that failure to adjust to the increasingly competitive social environment may result in psychological problems among young people.

Since the dominant focus of the Chinese educational system remains test scores and university enrollment ratios, the psychological health of students is often neglected.

To ensure the psychological health of the public, experts suggest that proper counseling and guidance should be provided to the victims.

Sources said that 80 percent of Americans have received or are receiving psychological treatment. Psychological consulting is one of the most respected professions in the United States.

In this regard, China is still lagging far behind. The country only has 2.4 psychological doctors per million population, compared to 550 per million population in the United States.

Experts said that greater efforts should be made to promote the development of psychological counseling and assistance in China, and called for wider attention and more help to people suffering from various psychological problems.

(People’s Daily 02/13/2001)