Although it represents the most comprehensive assessment of the burden due to mental, neurological, and substance use disorders to date, not all elements of the burden were captured. By focusing on health loss, burden in GBD 2010 does not extend to welfare loss; hence, it does not capture all of the consequences of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders for families or societies. Disability weights in GBD 2010 were derived from surveying the general population (rather than by clinicians, as in previous GBD studies), with the aim of better capturing the societal view of health loss. Nevertheless, adequately encompassing the complexity of health states that represent mental, neurological, and substance use disorders within the survey was challenging; the extent to which the GBD 2010 disability weights entirely reflected the associated health loss is an important area for further research. Finally, the established definitions of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders used in the study may not be sensitive to non-Western presentation of these disorders, which may have led to an underestimation of burden in developing regions. A task for upcoming
