When teens visit a doctor, it is increasingly about mental health
The news
Doctor visits by adolescents and young adults are increasingly involving mental health diagnoses, in addition to prescribing psychiatric medications.
That was the conclusion of a new study that found that in 2019, 17 percent of outpatient doctor visits for patients ages 13 to 24 in the United States were for a behavioral or mental health disorder, including anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm or suicide. other problems. That figure is up sharply from 2006, when only 9 percent of doctor visits were for psychiatric conditions.
The study, published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, also found a sharp increase in the number of visits involving psychiatric medications. In 2019, 22.4 percent of outpatient visits by the 13 to 24 age group involved the prescription of at least one psychiatric medication, up from 13 percent in 2006.
The big picture
The study is the latest evidence of a shift in the types of conditions affecting children, adolescents and young adults. For decades, their health care visits were for more physical ailments, such as broken bones, viruses and drunk driving injuries. However, doctors are increasingly seeing a wide variety of behavioral and mental health problems.
The reasons are not entirely clear. Some experts have said that modern life brings a new kind of mental pressure, even as society has reduced the risks of physical ailments.
The latest study gives no reason for the shift. But the pandemic alone was not to blame, the report noted. “These findings suggest that the increase in mental health problems among young people during the pandemic occurred in the context of already rising rates of psychiatric disorders,” wrote the authors, a pediatrician and psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. “Treatment and prevention strategies will need to take into account factors beyond the direct and indirect effects of the pandemic.”
The numbers
The analysis comes from the National Ambulatory Care Survey, which asks a sample of physicians from across the country about the reasons for patient visits. Between 2006 and 2019, patients aged 13 to 24 made 1.1 billion healthcare visits, of which 145 million were for mental health issues. But the proportion of mental health-related visits increased each year, the study found, as did the prescribing of psychiatric medications, including stimulants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and anti-anxiety medications.
The study found that antidepressants had the greatest increase, but the exact level was not specified, said Dr. Florence T. Bourgeois, a pediatrician at Boston Children’s Hospital, associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study. paper.
The prescription patterns leave an open question, she said.
“We cannot distinguish whether this speaks to the severity of the conditions or to changes in prescribing attitudes and trends,” she said. Regardless, she added, “We are treating these conditions aggressively.”