Depression common among adolescents even before pandemic, report finds

Depression was common among adolescents even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, affecting around one in every five, according to 6 years of surveillance data published this week in MMWR.

Additionally, one in 11 U.S. children aged 3 to 17 were diagnosed with anxiety or ADHD in the years before the pandemic, the study said.

Researchers analyzed nine different data systems with indicators on children’s mental health, including the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, the National Survey of Children’s Health, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the National Violent Death Reporting System, the National Vital Statistics System, the School-Associated Violent Death Surveillance System, and the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

From 2013 to 2019, depression was common among children and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, with 20.9% reporting a major depressive episode, one in three (36.7%) reporting feeling sad or hopeless and nearly one in five (18.8%) reporting that they seriously considered suicide. An estimated seven in 100,000 persons aged 10 to 19 years died by suicide in 2018 and 2019.

According to the authors, the most prevalent disorders diagnosed among U.S. children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years were ADHD and anxiety, each affecting approximately one in 11 (9.4%-9.8%) children.

The report added that among children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years, 9.6% to 10.1% had received mental health services, and 7.8% of all children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years had taken medication for mental health problems during the past year, based on parent report.

The authors noted that although approximately one in four children and adolescents in the 12-to-17 age group reported receiving mental health services in the past year, in federal data systems, data on positive indicators of mental health, such as resilience, are limited.

“Although no comprehensive surveillance system for children’s mental health exists and no single indicator can be used to define the mental health of children or to identify the overall number of children with mental disorders, these data confirm that mental disorders among children continue to be a substantial public health concern,” they wrote.

The AAP and other pediatric groups in October said that a “worsening crisis in child and adolescent mental health” brought on by COVID-19 “and the ongoing struggle for racial justice” constituted a national emergency, citing findings that claimed approximately one in four youth globally are experiencing clinically elevated depression symptoms, and around one in five are experiencing anxiety — both double their prepandemic estimates.

The new report came soon after a study in MMWR reported that among adolescent females aged 12 to 17, weekly ED visits increased for eating disorders and tic disorders in 2020; for depression, eating disorders, tic disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 2021; and for anxiety, trauma and stressor-related disorders, eating disorders, tic disorders, and OCD during January 2022 — all compared with 2019.