Why So Many Young Adults with Depression Don ’t Get Treatment

Depression affects more young adults than any other adult age group. Each year, 7.5% of U.S. adults suffer from at least one major depressive episode: characterized by persistent sadness, diminished interest in activities, feelings of emptiness, hopelessness, or other similar symptoms lasting at least two weeks. But 17% of people ages 18 to 25 did in 2020, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH). Major depressive episodes are usually signs of clinical depression. That’s an even bigger problem than it seems, because a study published May 10 in JAMA Network Open found that most of these young people are also not being treated. From 2011 to 2019, 53% of young adults who had experienced a major depressive episode in the past year did not receive treatment. And the biggest reason that young adults gave for avoiding treatment was cost. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Wenhua Lu, a professor in the department of Human Health and Social Medicine at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Medicine, led the research, which relied on data drawn from an annual national survey of 70,000 Americans. In the survey, participants answer an extensive range of questions about their mental health, including whether they are receiving treatment and the reasons they either are or are not. Over the nine-year period they were studying, Lu and her colleagues found that more than 21,000 young adults had suffered from at least one major depressive episode&m...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Mental Health Source Type: news