Teen mental health shows signs of improvement but remains a crisis, reports CDC

CNN
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During the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health-related emergency room visits have risen sharply among children and adolescents. A new report published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows signs of improvement, but poor mental health remains a “substantial public health problem”, particularly among adolescent girls.

CDC researchers tracked the average number of weekly emergency room visits among teens ages 12 to 17 for nine specific mental health conditions, suicide attempts and other suicide-related behaviors, and drug overdoses.

In the fall of 2022, emergency room visits for overall mental health issues, suicide-related behaviors and drug overdoses were each at least 10% lower than they were in the fall 2021, on average.

Despite the decline, however, emergency room visits for mental and behavioral health remained at or above pre-pandemic benchmarks for adolescent girls.

And rates remained significantly higher among teenage girls than teenage boys. In the fall of 2022, there were over 4,000 visits for mental health issues among teenage girls, compared to about 2,400 for teenage boys. Presumed suicide attempts were nearly four times higher among teenage girls than among teenage boys.

ED visits for drug overdoses were also higher than baseline levels as of 2019. Overdoses involving opioids in particular rose 27% between fall 2021 and fall 2022, with larger increases in adolescents, according to the CDC report.

Health experts have been sounding the alarm about young people’s mental health for years. The CDC released a survey in February that showed teenage girls were experiencing record levels of violence, sadness and risk of suicide in recent years.

“America’s teenage girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma,” said Dr. Debra Houry, CDC’s chief medical officer and deputy director of programs and science, said at the time. However, she says, many mental health problems are preventable.

A return to school and other community settings that more closely resembled pre-pandemic environments may have helped teens feel less isolated and more engaged, CDC researchers said in the new report.

But continued efforts to support adolescent mental health are needed, including “comprehensive evidence-based prevention efforts” such as the 988 suicide hotline and access to telehealth options, as well as “ early identification of conditions and trauma-informed interventions”.