Demand for Care for Depression, Suicidal Thoughts Among U.S. Youth Is Growing, Report Finds

Roughly 1 in 5 U.S. adolescents received mental health care between 2005 and 2018, with the greatest proportion receiving care for internalizing mental health conditions such as depression and suicidal ideation, astudy inJAMA Psychiatryhas found.“Trends in types of problems for which adolescents received care correspond with recent national trends of adolescent psychopathology and appear to highlight the growing importance of recognizing and managing internalizing problems across the major treatment settings,” wrote Ramin Mojtabai, M.D. , Ph.D., M.P.H., of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Mark Olfson, M.D., M.P.H., of Columbia University.Mojtabai and Olfson examined data from 230,070 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who were interviewed as part of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2018. The survey participants were asked whether they had received mental health treatment or counseling in the past 12 months, where they received this care, and the reasons for receiving care. Internalizing problems included thoughts of killing or harming themselves, depressive symptoms, feeling afraid or tense, or eating problems. Externalizing problems included breaking rules, trouble controlling anger, or getting into fights. Relationship problems included problems at home, in the participant ’s family, or with the participant’s friends.The researchers found that 47,090 adolescents, or 19.7% of the total sample, repor...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: adolescent depression externalizing problems health settings internalizing problems JAMA Psychiatry National Survey on Drug Use and Health suicide Source Type: research