KOLKATA: About 1.25 crore of Bengal's estimated population of 9.67 crore suffer from a plethora of mental health problems and are in need of immediate treatment. When it comes to cases of severe mental disorder, 1.8% of Bengal's population is affected, the highest in the country.These are some of the findings of the National Mental Health Survey 2016 held recently and conducted in 12 states by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences ( NIMHANS ).According to it, Bengal is the fourth worst state after Manipur, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab as far as mental health is concerned.The first phase of the one-of-a-kind survey included Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the north, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the south, Jharkhand and West Bengal in the east, Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in central India and Assam and Manipur in the northeast. It was commissioned by the Centre after the passing of the Mental Health Care Bill 2013, which provides for protection and promotion of rights of persons with mental illnesses.According to the survey , 13% of Bengal's population suffer from various mental issues. These include neurotic stress-related disorder, high suicidal risk, schizophrenia , obsessive compulsive disorder and depressive and anxiety disorder. Only 3 states -Manipur at 14.1%, Madhya Pradesh at 13.9% and Punjab at 13.4% -have a mental health condition worse than West Bengal's.What's more alarming is that the current prevalence of severe mental disorders in most states was less than 1%, except in Manipur and Bengal. While 1.3% of Manipur's population suffer from severe mental disorders, in Bengal it is as high as 1.8%.Around 3.5% of Bengal's people suffer from neurotic and stress-related disorders, 2.7% from depressive disorder, 1.9% from phobic anxiety disorder, 1.2% from other anxiety disorder, 0.4% from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorder, 0.8% from obsessive compulsive disorder and 2.8% from mood disorder. Nearly 1% of the population reported high suicidal risk. The prevalence of high suicidal risk was more in the 40-49 age group (1.19%), among females (1.14%) and in those residing in urban metros (1.71%).Assam is the best performer with 5.8% disorders, followed by UP (6.1%) and Gujarat (7.4%). These are the only three states with mental problems below 8%, the standard fixed by the institution.