This is how age affects mental health: Children are more anxious, and teens are more depressed. health and wellness

Being young is usually a positive factor when talking about health. But things change fundamentally when we focus on mental health. A new study based on the results of the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) shows that mental disorders place a significant burden on the lives of the population aged five to 24. According to a study published today in the journal Nature, one in 10 children and youth of this age (or in other words, 293 million worldwide) lives with at least one diagnosable mental disorder. JAMA Psychiatry,

“The mental health of youth around the world is in crisis,” says David C. Saunders, a child psychiatrist at Columbia University in the United States, in an editorial accompanying the research. The figures reported in the study are in line with available data on the global prevalence of mental disorders in young people, which is 13.4% among children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. However, this study varied by age and gender groups, showing large differences depending on the disease. Age matters in these cases. Thus, anxiety predominates in the 5 to 9 year old group, while depressive disorders are more prevalent in the 15 to 19 year old and 20 to 24 year old group. Sex is also a determinant. Thus, men are more likely to suffer from alcohol or drug abuse problems, while anxiety, depression or eating disorders are more prevalent in women. In other diseases where social conditioning is not so obvious, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, there is hardly any difference.

The GBD is a study that evaluates death and disability caused by major diseases, injuries, and risk factors. It involves a collaboration of more than 3,600 researchers from 145 countries. And it takes a stable and general picture of diseases affecting the world. Have analyzed this zoom In a specific population group, young people, and in a specific type of illness, mental illnesses.

The results are worrying, but not surprising. scientific journal PNAS A study published last November warned of worsening mental health among youth population groups in Australia. Depressive symptoms are more common in British teenagers born in the 2000s than in those born in the previous decade.

“It also agrees with what we see here,” confirms José Luis Ayuso Mateos, professor of psychiatry at the Autonomous University of Madrid. “The clinical reality has long demonstrated that we were facing a problem that had to be addressed.” Ayuso, who also works on regional studies for the World Health Organization, had no involvement with this analysis. But he is working on the 2021 GBD and can say one thing: “The pandemic has had a clear impact. When this comes to light, we will see a significant increase in the number of depression, anxiety disorders, suicides and completed suicides. The scale of the problem is about to become more apparent.”

When talking about mental health, it’s normal to see a turning point in the pandemic, with millions of people locked in their homes, access to doctors difficult and plenty of time to think. But analyzes show that the truth is that change was already happening. “The mental health of young people is deteriorating,” Saunders wrote in his editorial. “But there are important things this test can’t answer, and one of them is why.” Although psychiatrists speculate on possible causes, “social networks and stressors such as climate change (eco-anxiety) may influence depression rates,” he explains.

Another common practice when talking about the mental health of young people is to focus on the fragility of the so-called, abusive, crystal generation. Once again, the data makes this idea clear. Saunders admits, “One might speculate that the increase seen in recent years is a misperception: greater awareness and less stigma could have led to more diagnoses.” But then he highlighted the rise in suicide attempts among young people as a counterpoint. “This suggests that the increase in mental illness diagnoses among youth is not an artificial phenomenon,” they concluded.

This is not a new thing either. Since the first GBD results in the 1990s, evidence has accumulated that mental disorders begin to appear in adolescence, reaching a peak around age 14. This period, which extends from childhood to the beginning of young adulthood, is important because of “rapid developmental changes such as brain maturation, entry into school, puberty, and the transition to work.” Perhaps for this reason, the study believes it would be appropriate to extend the study period from adolescence until age 24, when the transition to adult life is truly complete.

“This is not new data, in fact, it is a historical observation in epidemiology,” Ayuso confirmed. “The morbidity of mental illness is higher in younger groups than in those born earlier. For example, it has already been observed that in the United States, people born after World War II had a higher prevalence of depression than people who were born before World War II. Since then, various epidemiological studies have confirmed this idea. Like the present.

The study leaves not only certainties. It also recognizes the need for additional research to better understand the underlying causes of the current crisis and identify more vulnerable populations. It highlights that factors such as social networks, virtual reality and artificial intelligence should also be considered in future research. And it warns of the potential consequences of a factor this analysis has not yet been able to analyze: the pandemic.

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