By Sultan Musayev | 2026-05-27

Russia is facing a mental health and addiction crisis unlike anything it has recorded in modern memory.

In 2025, diagnoses of alcoholism and psychosis jumped by 30% in a single year -- the steepest increase since national monitoring began. Antidepressant sales have nearly doubled since 2022. Nearly 4 million Russians now live with a diagnosed mental disorder.

Behind the numbers is something harder to quantify: a country psychologically worn down by war, propaganda, economic stress, and a government that, experts say, may prefer it that way.

Drinking to escape

The spike in alcohol-related diagnoses was widespread. The Russian Health Ministry documented significant increases in 69 of the country's regions in 2025, after a decade in which alcoholism diagnoses had fallen by two-thirds.

In Omsk Region, the number of alcoholics quintupled. In Astrakhan Region it quadrupled. Perm Region recorded 288 cases per 100,000 residents -- its highest ever, and the second-highest in the country, according to an April report in iStories. The Chukotka autonomous district led all Russian territories, with over 390 diagnosed cases per 100,000 residents. Chukotka also recorded the most deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide.

A nation on antidepressants

Mental health diagnoses are rising alongside addiction figures. In 2025, 328 people per 100,000 residents received a first-time diagnosis of a mental disorder -- the highest rate in 14 years.

Moscow, historically not among the most affected regions, appeared in the top 15 for the first time, with a rate nearly one and a half times the national average. Karelia recorded over 700 new mental disorder diagnoses per 100,000 residents. Arkhangelsk Region and Altai Region each exceeded 600.

Demand for antidepressants reflects the same pressure. Citing data from RNC Pharma, Russian media reported in May that sales climbed from approximately 14 million packages in 2022 to nearly 24 million in 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, sales were up 22% year over year. Of the roughly 4 million Russians diagnosed with mental or conduct disorders, two-thirds suffer from depression and anxiety.

"The current situation in the country is intensifying the predisposition to mental illnesses," psychiatrist Aleksei Kazantsev told iStories. "The planning horizon has shortened. The emotional state is getting worse."

The war's invisible wounds

Experts and observers point to several compounding causes. Tens of thousands of veterans have returned from Ukraine with post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological injuries. Hundreds of thousands of families have lost fathers, husbands, sons and brothers and many have hit bureaucratic walls trying to learn how their relatives died or disappeared, adding grief and frustration to existing trauma.

The relentless stream of war propaganda and military recruitment advertising compounds the stress.

Ulan Omorov, who is originally from Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan and works at a hypermarket in Moscow, described an atmosphere of exhaustion and fear.

"Everyone's tired of the internet blocks, the threat from drones and the economic problems," he told Kontur. He said nearly everyone he knows wants the so-called special military operation to end but stays silent out of fear of criminal prosecution for "discrediting the Russian army." Recruitment advertising, he added, "is a constant reminder of the war, and it creates pressure."

Psychotherapist Anastasia Rubtsova told iStories the cultural shift is also significant. The pre-war trend toward openness about mental health has reversed. Now the message, she said, is to "tough it out" -- framed by slogans like "everything for the front" and "surrounded by enemies." Falling incomes mean fewer people are seeking care at all, leaving them to manage alone.

A demographic time bomb

Specialists warn that what is happening now will have consequences well beyond the current crisis.

Aigerim Ibragimova, a specialist at the Psychological Support Center in Almaty, said the pace of growth in alcoholism and psychosis cases signals that Russian society is losing its resilience.

"Depression and alcohol are becoming the norm in Russia, and in the long term this will create a demographic hole because for a country to grow normally, it needs a healthy society before anything else," she told Kontur.

Ibragimova also offered a blunt assessment of the Kremlin's interest in the problem. During a crisis, she said, the state often tolerates rising alcohol consumption because a numbed population is less politically active.

"Right now having a placid population is good for the state, while higher excise income helps to fill holes in the budget," she said.