Older teens showing more anxiety and depression
A Medscape summary reports anxiety and depression diagnoses rose among children and teens during the pandemic, with older adolescents showing particularly large increases. (medscape.com). The piece highlights internalised and masked distress that often appears in high‑achieving secondary students. (medscape.com).
Depression and anxiety in children and teens rose during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the biggest increases showed up in older adolescents. (jamanetwork.com) A JAMA Pediatrics meta-analysis published in 2021 found depressive and anxiety symptoms in young people had roughly doubled from prepandemic estimates. The same review said rates were higher later in the pandemic, in older adolescents, and in girls. (jamanetwork.com) A second JAMA Pediatrics review in 2023, covering 53 longitudinal studies and more than 40,000 children and adolescents across 12 countries, found depression symptoms increased during the pandemic. That increase was larger among female participants and among youth from relatively higher-income backgrounds. (jamanetwork.com) The pattern did not start with Covid-19. A 2021 U.S. surgeon general advisory said that in 2019, one in three high school students and half of female students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, up 40% from 2009. (hhs.gov) Pandemic-era emergency data showed the strain spilling into crisis care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said suspected suicide-attempt emergency visits for girls ages 12 to 17 were 50.6% higher in February to March 2021 than in the same period in 2019. (cdc.gov) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found mental health-related emergency visits rose among adolescent females during 2020, 2021, and January 2022, including visits tied to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and tic disorders. (cdc.gov) Clinicians and researchers have warned that distress in teenagers does not always look disruptive. Reviews of adolescent mental health describe a rise in “internalizing” problems — symptoms such as anxiety, low mood, and withdrawal that can stay hidden in students who keep grades up and routines intact. (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Researchers studying high-achieving schools have reported the same blind spot. An American Psychologist review said excessive pressure to excel is now treated as a major mental health risk, with multiple studies finding elevated rates of serious symptoms in affluent, high-performing school communities. (psycnet.apa.org) Professional groups responded by pushing earlier screening. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force-backed guidance cited by the American Psychological Association recommends anxiety screening for ages 8 to 18 and depression screening for adolescents ages 12 to 18. (apa.org) The public-health message has shifted from asking whether teens were affected to asking which teens were missed. Older adolescents, especially girls and students whose distress stayed quiet, are the group that kept surfacing in the data. (jamanetwork.com)
