About Three-Quarters of Adolescents Report Common Mental Disorders

Jan 07, 2025

MONDAY, Jan. 6, 2025 (HealthDay News) — About three-quarters of adolescents report common mental disorders (CMDs; depression and anxiety), with a high likelihood of chronicity of symptoms, according to a study published online Dec. 4 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Ellie May Robson, Ph.D., from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues described the course of CMD symptoms in adolescence by summarizing the annual prevalence, cumulative incidence, and course for depression and anxiety using data from the Child to Adult Transition Study. A total of 1,239 students were followed annually for 10 waves from 2012 to 2019.

The researchers found that the incidence of any clinically significant CMD symptoms during adolescence was 74 percent (84 and 61 percent for girls and boys, respectively). Independent incidence rates were 65 and 58 percent for clinically significant depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms, respectively; comorbid CMDs had an incidence of 48 percent. For both sexes, the estimated mean ages of first report in adolescence were 14.1 and 13.6 years for depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively. More than half of those who reached the threshold score for any CMD between ages 10 and 18 years had a chronic course (54 and 52 percent for depression and anxiety, respectively); one-third met the criteria for full remission at any subsequent wave (30 and 33 percent for depression and anxiety, respectively). Compared with boys, girls were consistently estimated to have a worse course of adolescent CMDs.

“We found the incidence and recurrence of depressive and anxiety symptoms to be remarkably high in this contemporary adolescent cohort, and evidence that these symptoms are not transitory,” the authors write.

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