Depression Increasing in Children
"[T]he tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007 - from one in 184 Americans to one in seventy-six. For children, the rise is even more startling - a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades. Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children." - The Raw Story (July 2011)
"The evidence for an epidemic of depression is very clear and has been heavily discussed in the clinical literature. For Americans born a century ago, the chances of suffering any episode of major depression in the lifetime was only about 1 percent. Today, the lifetime incidence is 19.2 percent (1). This implies a relative increase of some 2,000 percent. Yet, even that estimate understates the problem because depression is becoming more prevalent in the young and is striking at ever-younger ages. Similar patterns are reported in other countries." - Psychology Today Blog (Sept 2011)
"The emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago." - The New York Times (Jan 2011)
"The evidence for an epidemic of depression is very clear and has been heavily discussed in the clinical literature. For Americans born a century ago, the chances of suffering any episode of major depression in the lifetime was only about 1 percent. Today, the lifetime incidence is 19.2 percent (1). This implies a relative increase of some 2,000 percent. Yet, even that estimate understates the problem because depression is becoming more prevalent in the young and is striking at ever-younger ages. Similar patterns are reported in other countries." - Psychology Today (Sept 2011)
"On this blog, I have warned about the growing epidemic of severe depression in the USA, pointing to signs that this growing wave of depression is concentrated in the young." - Psychology Today (Jan 2011)
"The emotional health of college freshmen — who feel buffeted by the recession and stressed by the pressures of high school — has declined to the lowest level since an annual survey of incoming students started collecting data 25 years ago." - The New York Times (Jan 2011)
"Over the last several decades, both through good economic times and bad, the United States has transformed into the planet's undisputed worry champion. Around the turn of the millennium, anxiety flew past depression as the most prominent mental health issue in America, and it's never looked back: With more than 18 percent of adults suffering from an anxiety disorder in any given year, the United States is now the most anxious nation in the world, according to the National Institute of Mental Health." - Slate (Jan 2011)
"A new study has found that five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the Great Depression era." - USA Today (Jan 2010), and Psychology Today (April 2010) and Psychology Today (Jan 2010)
"In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood. They write: "We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions." Telegraph (Sept 2006)
"Mental illnesses including anxiety disorders and depression are common and under-treated in many developed and developing countries, with the highest rate found in the United States, according to a study of 14 countries." - MSNBC (July 2004)
Youth Suicide rates have increased 100% since 1950:
Suicide.org (1950 to 2003)
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