Fig. 4 illustrates the decomposition of global burden by YLDs and YLLs for communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases, and injuries. Noncommunicable diseases explained a large proportion of YLDs and YLLs in 2010, when compared to communicable diseases and injuries. Within this group, mental, neurological, and substance use disorders were responsible for 28.5% of all YLDs, making them the leading cause of YLDs worldwide. In comparison, they contributed to only 2.3% of YLLs. Deaths and YLLs could be assigned to a mental, neurological, and substance use disorder only when the disorder was considered as a direct cause of death in the ICD cause of death directory. Using this approach, the majority of excess deaths in individuals with a mental disorder, in particular, were coded to the direct physical cause of death (for example, suicide deaths were coded under injuries as self-harm) rather than to the disorder.
