Note to Mentally Ill Teens: You’re On Your Own

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http://science.time.com/2013/11/20/note-to-mentally-ill-teens-youre-on-your-own/

The investigators looked for a broad range of conditions common among kids, including mood disorders, behavioral disorders and anxiety disorders. They found plenty of cases of them—but treatment was another matter. According to Kessler’s and Costello’s analysis, a teenager suffering from one psychological disorder has just a 32% chance of having received any treatment at all in the past year. For two disorders, the figure climbs to 44% and only for three or more does it cross the 50-50 mark, topping out at 69%.



“The sicker the kids are, the likelier they are to have gotten treatment,” says Costello. But even then, was it the right kind? For the purposes of the study, “treatment” could mean as little as a single visit, and that visit didn’t even have to be with a psychologist or psychiatrist. School guidance counselors, social services case managers and even representatives of the juvenile justice system could count too.

“The proportion who actually saw a mental health professional was much lower,” says Costello, “at just 12.5% for one disorder, 20.6% for two, and 42.7% for three.”

If not all kids are treated equally, not all disorders are either. The conditions most likely to get the attention of some kind of caregiver were ADHD, oppositional-defiant disorder and any of the conduct disorders—precisely the problems which, coincidentally or not, were the likeliest to cause parents and teachers headaches. In 70% of cases, kids with those conditions got at least some kind of care. Other ills, such as panic disorders, social phobias and more-generalized anxiety disorders, from which kids often suffer silently, received less attention, with only 41.4% of kids seeing any kind of professional and only 22.3% seeing a psychiatrist or psychologist. For major depressive disorder, the numbers were a little better—62% for any care at all and 37% for a mental health professional.


Read more: Teenage, Mentally Ill, and On their Own | TIME.com http://science.time.com/2013/11/20/note-to-mentally-ill-teens-youre-on-your-own/#ixzz2laQE15mO