The number of first diagnosed cases of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is on a sharp rise. This is only one of the disorders that Ukrainians are ever more frequently diagnosed with because more than four years of the active war phase can’t go unnoticed. Despite the promoted image of invincible Ukrainians, we still remain ordinary people, whose mental health endures permanent stress in different ways. There is an increase not only in disorders, directly caused by the trauma a person has suffered, but also in the ones, in which stress has been merely a trigger that accentuated already present problems.
However, there is an unexpected decline along with this increase. The number of disorders, related to the use of psychoactive substances, – the most common diagnosis among Ukrainians until recently – has decreased considerably. It turned out that the explanation is more complicated than it seems at a glance.
NGL.media analysed the official data of the Ministry of Health to realize how the dynamics of determining mental disorders changed during the war, and what it means.
How have we done it?
The statistical information about the mental health state of Ukrainians is collected by the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Health, which publishes the summarized data in the form of Excel tables.
We faced a problem immediately: it is difficult to read the tables of the Ministry of Health even for a specialist, and the data structure sometimes seems inconsistent and complicates the analysis. For instance, a specific distribution in terms of age: “minors” (up to 14 y.o.), “children” (up to 18 y.o.), “young people” (18-35), “elderly” (60+). As for middle-aged people (35-60), they aren’t present in these statistics at all – they are considered only in the total figure.
There are some concerns about the data completeness. Due to martial law, the publications of information about psychiatric diagnoses were suspended, and only in March 2026, these data became public again. However, the data for 2021-2024 may be incomplete, since it was difficult to collect the information because of the Russian invasion, Serhii Shum, the Director General of the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, warns.
Therefore, it would be accurate to compare the data for 2018-2020 and 2025 where all the first diagnosed cases of psychiatric disorders are taken into account. In our infographics, we also used the data for 2021-2024 for comparison, but it should be clear that these data may be incomplete.
It is also noteworthy that the Ministry of Health receives information from medical institutions, located in the territory controlled by Ukraine, and their number has decreased since 2022. It should also be taken into consideration that in these years, the number of total population has also decreased both due to the occupation, and the emigration under necessity According to the recent UN data about 5.7 mln Ukrainians are registered as refugees in different countries of the world.
Stress as a trigger
According to the data of the World Health Organization, almost half of Ukrainian population has problems with mental health due to the war. However, it doesn’t mean that every person with some symptoms has a mental health disorder. And the issue of psychiatry is still rather stigmatized in Ukraine, so people are afraid to visit specialists. Thus, the official statistics covers only some of those people who actually have problems.
“According to our estimates, more than 50% of Ukrainian population may have some symptoms of mental disorders. Some studies show that even up to 80% of Ukrainians of working age experience some symptoms. However, it is rather difficult to say whether these are isolated symptoms or a part of a more global disease,” Bohdan Bozhuk, the president of the Ukrainian Association of Doctors-Psychologists, explains for NGL.media. “Why don’t people come for help? The system of mental health care still remains a somewhat stigmatizing direction, and people just don’t want to [go there]. Many view it as a sign of weakness.”
The official diagnosis of a mental disorder may be made only when a person voluntarily comes to the system, providing psychiatric care. That is, if there are symptoms, but a person hasn’t come to the psychiatrist, he or she isn’t considered in the official statistics. Yet, the data of the Institute of Forensic Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine still demonstrate a sharp increase in diagnoses, caused by stress during the war.
In 2025, one in four new psychiatric diagnoses was related to the stress-caused diseases. The most frequent diagnoses were the states from the category “acute stress response and adjustment disorders” – these are mental states developed by a person after a traumatic event. During the war, these may be caused by shelling, explosions nearby, a loss of a loved one, or other events provoking a mental response. PTSD is the most frequently discussed diagnosis in this category, the number of cases of this official diagnosis increased seven times from 2020 to 2025.
The diagnosis of PTSD was introduced to the classification of diagnoses in 1980 after the study, involving the Vietnam war veterans who told about obsessive thoughts and nightmares about their former battles, numb emotional reactivity, wrath, and dependence on psychoactive substances which developed after they had come from the war. And this diagnosis is most frequently made in countries with long-term conflicts. The full-scale war in Ukraine also caused a sharp rise in PTSD diagnoses, especially among men, whose share is 74% according to the data of the Ministry of Health.
“According to the statistical studies, about 20% of people who have directly experienced a severe stressful event, related to death or a risk of death, will have PTSD,” Bohdan Bozhuk, an expert, explains. “The majority of cases are adjustment disorders which occur when a person is unable to fully adjust to what is happening in life: loss of loved ones, constant shelling, relocation, feeling of permanent danger, uncertainty in future, and the like. It starts demonstrating itself via constant anxiety, low mood, irritability, sleep disorders. There may be difficulties with concentration and poorer work performance. And a person will not always relate [these symptoms] to the fact that there is a disorder which may be diagnosed absolutely clearly.”
Some increase in indices may be related not only to the war, but also to the fact that the diagnostics became more accurate, and a visit to a psychiatrist somewhat less stigmatized. Yet the general picture shows that the rise is too sharp and its occurrence is too much of a coincidence in time with the full-scale invasion to explain it by better diagnostics only.
There is an indicative change in diagnosing affective disorders – mood disorders. Depressive states belong to this group as well. In 2025, Ukrainians were diagnosed with these disorders three times more often than in 2020. There is a slightly less significant yet evident increase in the number of mental disorders of organic nature, which were caused by physical processes: traumas, infections, tumours, etc.
Another category in the official statistics which attracted our attention was psychotic disorders: here the number of diagnosed cases increased twice. These are different conditions when a person loses touch with reality: they have visual or auditory hallucinations or believe in something that doesn’t correspond to reality. The most common diagnosis is schizophrenia. It doesn’t develop in people without a biological inclination, but a severe stress may become a trigger, launching the first episode of the disease. So, this increase may also be partially explained by the long-term stress of the war.
Are there fewer alcohol and drug addicts?
The decline in the incidence of mental disorders resulting from the use of psychoactive substances turned out to be unexpected. These are mental disorders caused by the use of drugs or alcohol: intoxication, addiction, and other states. In 2018-2020, these disorders were most common, but in 2025, the number of newly diagnosed cases decreased almost three times. Partially, this sharp change may be explained by a decline in the population.
“Does it mean that people drink less alcohol or use other psychoactive substances? May be not, because the conditions impair the mental state, and the simplest response to the deterioration of the mental state is to have a drink: first with friends, with the colleagues, and then on one’s own. And it will take rather a long time before a person comes to the system of care,” Bohdan Bozhuk says.
It is noteworthy that despite a general decline in the diagnostics of disorders, caused by alcohol and drugs, the number of disorders, caused by the use of methadone, increases each year. Last year, there were over five times more such disorders as compared with the pre-war 2020 1,607 first diagnosed cases in 2025 as compared to 372 in 2020.
Methadone is a synthetic opioid substance officially used in Ukraine as a substitute maintenance therapy for the treatment of dependence on other opioids. As a therapeutic substance, this preparation helps in the treatment of dependence on other drugs. Every year, the number of new patients who receive substitute therapy increases which affects the statistics as well.
Methadone should be prescribed in specific doses under doctor’s control. But the reality shows that methadone can be bought illegally on the black market. And though law enforcement bodies periodically report about successful cases of combating drug dealers, the illegal circulation of the preparation is still present.
What can be done?
It is important to understand that the majority of people, experiencing traumatic events, won’t have such severe consequences of their mental health which result in disorders. In the words of Natalia Pidkaliuk, the co-founder of the Institute of Psychosomatics and Traumatherapy, in some cases a mental disorder may result in a posttraumatic growth, when people who experienced quite severe circumstances may inspire others.
“The statistics of global crises and wars demonstrates that about 20-25% people will require a more professional and complex assistance. If we talk about Israel, where they have a well-developed prevention system, these figures may be decreased to 8-10%, if a lot is invested in prevention work itself,” Natalia Pidkaliuk says.
Prevention work may include different educational programmes, platforms of psychological aid, including self-aid. Psychiatrists insist that in recent years, psychological and psychiatric assistance have become more available for Ukrainians, though there are still not enough specialists in this sphere.
“Now the mental health system isn’t limited to medical doctors, psychiatrists, only. It includes psychotherapists, psychologists, and family doctors who have got additional training. So, in general, the availability to the mental health system is being improved. And the number of departments, teaching medical psychologists, has increased several times in the recent five-seven years. So the number of specialists is increasing. However, one still can’t say that they meet the need facing our country,” Bohdan Bozhuk believes.
It is important to understand that chronic stress and the absence of healthy sleep impact not only mental health. A human organism is an integral entity, and all its organs and processes are closely interrelated.
“There are more cases of high blood pressure – hypertonic diseases. There are also common somatic forms of disorders when people feel not emotional stress but some constant pain which is not confirmed by examinations. This may be an irritable bowel syndrome when a person has physical symptoms but everything is fine during examinations. This is also a common phenomenon now,” Natalia Pidkaliuk, an expert psychiatrist, says.
Author Kateryna Rodak, editor Oleh Onysko, infographics Maksym Piho, translation Nelya Plakhota, cover Viktoria Demchuk
