Jennifer Mendoza
Research expert covering health, pharma and medtech
Mental health treatment in Italy - statistics & facts
Following the implementation of law number 180, passed in 1978, by the year 2000 all psychiatric hospitals in Italy were closed. Nowadays, psychiatric wards in Italy are located in general hospitals, with approximately 10 beds per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2022, around 777 thousand patients were treated in mental health wards in Italy, with most of them females and aged 45 to 64 years. The number of involuntary mental health treatments in Italy has decreased, with a total of 5,118 cases in 2022, most of which occurred in the region of Sicily. The percentage of patients with a severe mental health diagnosis leaving treatment was 1.2 percent in 2022, most with a diagnosis of depression or personality disorder.
