Increase In Mental Illness Among College Students
Data presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association showed that the number of college students with a serious mental illness is rising, reported the Los Angeles Times.
John Guthman, lead author of the study, and his team analyzed 3,265 students who sought college counseling between September 1997 and August 2009. Students were examined for mental disorders, suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behavior.
Read the full article here.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I wonder sometimes whether increases in the number of people identified as suffering from mental illness at the pediatric and young adult level are the result of better identification/education or a result of actual increases in the instances of mental illness. This is touched on in the article, but it really is something I think about a fair amount.
When Princess and Hoss were given their diagnoses in recent years, folks talked to me about their own theories as to why kids seem to be getting mood disorders now, whereas when we were kids we almost never knew any children who were depressed, bipolar, etc. But in retrospect, I think I had the same anxiety issues Princess does, and that many of my classmates had similar issues to what Hoss faces (they just got labeled as “difficult” or “weird” instead of “mood disorder NOS”). Kids aren’t more likely to have mental health disorders, maybe we just know what to look for in childhood to identify, diagnose and treat those conditions.